Raise The Dawn
by TwoZeroTwo
Summary: A mage on the edge of rehabilitation is caught between two planets - the one he is devoted to, and the one that saved his life. His last days in the program will cause a conflict of interests and beliefs for both parties and both worlds that may not be resolved so easily. Chapter 6: The Recruitment of Erio Mondial (2/2) is up. "Recruitment" is in the loosest sense, of course.
1. For The Gate Is Wide

Standard Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Nanoha series.

**Quick A/N at the Top; Longer one at the bottom  
**

This is a sequel to a previous story called Raze The Stray. If you haven't read that, you might get confused, since this story will end up using several OCs from that and continuing the plot from that. I tried to 'hint' at what happened in that for the start of this, but I didn't really want to just drop a plot summary in awkwardly. RtS is kind of long, though, so if anyone would like, message me and I can give you a plot summary to that.

Also, yes, this story has OCs. I've tried hard not to make them groan-worthy, and I'm staying far away from the pitfalls associated with them. Like, there will be ABSOLUTELY NO OCxCC romance, so don't worry there, and I'm also confident no one's growing angel wings and going Quadruple-S during the story. Wouldn't touch that with a 10-foot pole, etc. I touch on this in the longer author's notes, but this will be a bit of a 'subdued' story - no galaxy-destroying dimensional forces or ancient evils or anything like that.

The character list in the description might be a bit weird, since the more prominent canon characters will change per chapter. But overall, those 4 are a good indication of the 'main' ones.

So here's the beginning, and if you like it, you can read the longer explanation at the bottom. If not, then I'm just glad you checked it out.

In the story:

"Dialogue like this" - normal spoken

"_Entire line in italics_" - telepathic

"Only _part _of the sentence in italics" - used for emphasis

[WORDS LIKE THIS] - said by a device or other system

* * *

For the gate is wide  
And the way is broad  
That delivered me  
(Insufferable in-between)  
From the fleeting dawn  
To this endless night  
In the labyrinth  
Of the Iron Kings.

Circle Takes The Square - _Enter By The Narrow Gates_

* * *

Planet: Administrated World #1: Midchilda  
City: Cranagan  
Date: July 23, 0076  
Time: 10:33 AM Midchildian Time

If his limiter hadn't fallen off the last two hundred times he pulled on it, it probably wouldn't come off the next time either. Still, that didn't stop the mage from slowly reaching down to the device that was locked on him above his right ankle, getting as good a grip on it as he could, and trying again. While, of course, watching the door to the room he was in, waiting for it to open.

In the grand scheme of things, limiters could hardly be considered that bad a punishment. On their own, they couldn't actually confine or keep the wearer anywhere, and if simply left alone, they provided little to no physical discomfort. However, if one attempted to subvert or remove a limiter without proper authorization, things could get very problematic very quickly - as the young man, currently a patient of the TSAB rehabilitation program, knew well by this point. This wasn't all that serious an attempt though, more just something to pass the time, and he stopped after a few seconds when the limiter jolted him with its first countermeasure. Again, it was more of a reflexive thing - something to do while he waited for his next appointment.

Bathory Kardenis looked around the room impatiently, finally settling on his device which was hanging by his right hand, tied to his arm by a string that looped around several times before running through the top of the dark green gem. Swinging his arm slightly, he carried the device up and into his hand, gripping it by the edges.

"Aphelion, what time is it?"

[DOCTOR SHAMAL IS CURRENTLY RUNNING THREE MINUTES AND FORTY FIVE SECONDS LATE]

Bathory had already opened his mouth to speak again, but his device's answer made him pause and smile.

"You, uh... you kinda knew what I was really asking there, didn't you?"

[ALL PREVIOUS APPOINTMENTS HAVE STARTED AT THE LATEST ONE MINUTE AFTER THE APPOINTED TIME - APOLOGIES - I HAD NOT BEEN RECORDING MORE ACTIVE DETAIL THAN THAT]

"That's fine. I just wanted to know about right now."

Any minute now, the doctor would arrive, gather his information once again, check his progress in the program, and authorize his limiter to be powered down by another rank. Hopefully. At least being a B rank felt better than what came before it, but while the young man's power was coming back, it was coming back slowly. Alone in the small office, it was quiet enough for him to dwell on that, compared to everything happening outside in the halls. It was a very busy time for the TSAB, with many new recruits and classes meeting for the first time, other classes graduating, and everything happening one after another. In fact, Bathory only had about six more minutes for this meeting to happen before he had to report back to his position and help, so with a little more worry, he continued to look around the room.

Just like that, the doorknob turned, Bathory sat up straight, and a blond haired woman entered the room, closing the door behind her. Now, whether it was the woman he expected to see was a different story, as doctors didn't usually wear black outfits, and Shamal certainly didn't have long hair. Bathory gulped.

"Fate?" he asked, and the Enforcer turned around.

"Good morning" she said. Across the small room, Bathory was still a little surprised by her arrival, and his head slowly turned away from her as he returned her greeting.

"M...morning..."

"Shamal is running a little behind, but she says that she can still make it." Fate walked over to where Bathory was, causing him to get more nervous, and his response trailed off before it ever really started.

"...yeahicanseethat..."

"And if things go too long, I'll make sure you're clear to stay. Don't worry about the time."

Bathory moved over to the edge of the bed, letting Fate stand next to him. Things seemed alright, but he was still a little on edge. She was the one who brought him to Midchilda in the first place and entered him in the program, and she would be the one to approve his release, and so there couldn't be any small reason she would be here for this appointment.

"Well," he tried to ask, "what's...uhh...why are you..."

"This appointment is for an A minus rank on your limiter, correct?" she asked. "And so you would be halfway towards your current rank. It's simply a formality that I need to be here."

Bathory sighed in relief and looked over at the Enforcer as she continued.

"Also, if you're still thinking of transferring back to Siba at the end of the program, they want to see you in person before you complete it. Again, I'll need to be there for that. Is that still what you want to do?"

"Of course" he said, though he obviously had a few worries on his mind. "I've tried calling my dad a couple of times - just telling him when I'm coming back and such. I'd like to talk to him, but the call keeps breaking up." He laughed nervously and brought one of his hands up, holding his head against it while he ran his fingers through his brown hair. "But Siba's really far away, so maybe there's nothing to it-"

The door swung open again, and Shamal quickly entered, closing the door on the rush of voices outside. Holding her device up, she wasted almost no time beginning the appointment.

"Sorry for being late" she said, already bringing up the forms on her patient. She headed over to the desk across from the other two mages, eyes on the screen in front of her the entire time. "Day's hardly begun and I've been getting stopped at every opportunity. I'd say things are beginning to get hectic, but it started off that way. Well, now that I'm here, how are you doing?" she asked, looking up at her patient.

Bathory smiled lightly. "I'm fine, thank you."

Shamal returned the smile before looking right back down at her documents. "Good to hear. Now, I don't think this should take much longer than normal, so you should be out within the time given."

"Understood" Bathory said. He looked over at Fate, who had also brought up a screen from her device and was reading along.

Shamal began reading. "This is an appointment for Bathory Kardenis for the unlocking of his limiter from rank B to rank A minus, and for his advancement in the program. He has currently served six weeks out of an eight week program, and is currently considered a low-threat member by the Time Space Administration Bureau. At the moment, there are zero transgressions on your report, and all comments made have been positive." Finishing that, Shamal looked up at her patient. "So, in other words, everything looks fine. You've done everything well so far, it looks like. I don't see any reason to keep you back."

Fate looked up from her device as well. "Agreed. Go ahead, Shamal."

Shamal looked back at her device as she got to signing what she had to. "Just give me a minute, then, and I'll get about unlocking you."

Bathory was happy about how things went, but he still had some lingering thoughts about his home planet. After a few seconds, he resumed his previous conversation.

"Fate, about Siba... I'd like to go back there, really, but I don't know what others are going to think. I mean, again, everyone thought one thing for so long, and you were the only one to really try and find out if I...I...if...why I did it." He tried his best to word things vaguely, not wanting to think of the incident too directly or all that had happened after it.

"Well," replied Fate, "the Midchildian TSAB cleared you, and on that, the Siban TSAB had to clear you, so I'd hold out hope. Some people may not have heard what they wanted to hear, but they've had time to settle down."

"Yeah" Bathory muttered again. "Hopefully."

As he said that, Shamal finished signing everything she had to, and she closed her device. "There," she said pleasantly, walking over to her patient, "You are all cleared for today." She knelt down and Bathory held out his leg to her, watching as she began to interact with the device. Facing outwards was a touchscreen that Shamal used to navigate the limiter, entering everything needed for the change to begin.

Bathory knew exactly when the order went through, as afterwards he immediately began to feel more of his linker core presented to him. He wanted to use his magic right away, but again, he couldn't. The continued wave of voices outside reminded him of his current duties.

Shamal got back up and leaned against her desk opposite of the other two. "Fate may have said this, but if you're going off planet at the end of this, she'll need to go with you once before the end of the program. Special request from them."

Fate nodded. "I'm setting that up for the twenty fifth. We'll see how things are when we go back there, but again, things should be fine."

Shamal folded her arms. "And so that's it," she said, "unless there's anything else you want to ask."

"Yeah, just something about this" said Bathory, looking down at his limiter again. "Right now, I'm further along in the program than I am on my limiter. I mean, I'm only halfway back up to AA. I don't want to doubt you, but am I going to be released with this still on? I don't need it on for too much longer, do I?"

Shamal was quick to answer. "Often, the limiter will stay on after release as one last safety precaution, especially for those who have never worked for the bureau before or need to be placed. You have prior experience and are going right back to where you left off, so we should be able to either speed up the process or jump multiple ranks at once. For example, if you continue without any problems, you could go from A straight to AA."

"And how about A minus to AA?" Bathory asked. "Any way for that to happen?"

"Not that much" Shamal responded. "But, again, it's likely we can speed you up at the end. That's how these normally go anyways. My experience was that it took ages for any of us to make progress at the start, and then suddenly, we were right back up to normal. I think it just took a while for the bureau to get used to us rather than the other way around."

"Not to mention," said Fate, "the very, VERY public campaign Hayate started when she figured out what was going on."

Shamal and Fate shared a laugh together, which told Bathory that it was probably time for him to go. He thanked the two again for their efforts and stepped back out into the crowded halls.

* * *

Bathory found the purple haired knight right on time, right as she was busy dealing with a wave of brown uniforms that had probably gotten turned around. On days like this, everyone had a part, and Signum was busy pointing in five directions at once and trying to keep things moving. After a little bit, the mages had wandered off, and Bathory could approach her.

"Excuse me, Signum-"

The knight noticed Bathory and immediately set about sending him off somewhere. "Well, Nanoha's new class is about to meet," she said looking off down the hallway, "and that's always a huge event. We could use as much help as we can get over there."

"Oh," replied the helper, dragging his feet at the idea. "I was sort of hoping there was something more ground-mage based, or maybe even a class using Modern Belkan. I could help out quite a bit-"

Signum's head shot back to stare Bathory down, freezing him mid-sentence. "Again," she repeated, going slower and more forceful than before, "we could use as much help as we can get for that."

Bathory gulped, and something told him that this was more than just a request. "Of...of course" he stammered, still rooted to the ground and trapped in her forceful stare. "I...I'll get right on that."

Signum closed her eyes momentarily and sighed, and that was all it took to get Bathory moving again. It wasn't hard to find the way to Nanoha, since he only had to follow a crowd of young mages that were no doubt excited to meet their inspiration and role model. Somehow, Bathory knew he'd be arriving soon when he could hear Vita's voice booming from around the corner.

"Keep moving, everyone! Come on - keep moving!"

Bathory turned the corner to find the hammer knight single-handedly trying to corral everyone into the large room next to her. Behind her, Nanoha and Hayate were trying to talk to each other over the noise, and most of the crowd was doing their best to introduce themselves to their future instructor. Bathory pushed his way through the mass and got over to Vita.

"Excuse me, I'm here to help-"

"Alright," said Vita, grabbing Bathory's shirt and spinning him around, "here's what ya do. If every single kid who wants to meet Nanoha gets to meet Nanoha, we aren't starting this assembly till tomorrow. Keep moving them along, okay?"

Vita didn't even wait for a response before heading back to the two Aces, and Bathory was left in the middle of the hallway to try to guide the kids in the right direction. He held his right arm out and pushed kids along with his left.

"Okay, keep moving - no, no, go on - go on - maybe later - maybe later."

After a while, the mass had cleared, and the hallway was almost empty again. In this new stillness, he could hear the conversation behind him.

"Nanoha, please," said Hayate. "All I'm saying is that this might still be a bit early-"

"But Hayate, look at how excited they are! I can't back out a minute before it starts. And it's the only class I'm doing-"

"The only class I let you do" Hayate interrupted. She crossed her arms and sighed. "I'm worried that it might start to hurt again."

Hearing this, Bathory's head slowly began to turn to look behind him, intrigued by the conversation.

Nanoha laughed. "Hayate, it hasn't hurt in a couple weeks now. It shouldn't come back from an introduction session."

"But you haven't been using any magic recently! You can't say that."

"And besides," said Vita, "we all know what your classes go through, even the first time."

Nanoha laughed again, scratching the back of her head. "Ahh, Vita..."

"Look, Nanoha..." Hayate rested her hands on the instructor's shoulders. "If it hurts at all, even just a little bit, I want you to stop. Vita can handle it for you."

"And if that happens," said Vita, "you better tell me. I can't help you if you don't show it."

"Understood." Nanoha sighed, and a mischievous smile crept across her lips. In one motion, she reached down and pulled Vita up into a big hug.

"H...Hey now!" the flustered knight yelled, squirming in Nanoha's grasp. "What's the meaning of this?"

"Because you're the best helper I could ask for."

"And," mentioned Hayate, "you look pretty cute now."

"Hayate," cried the little knight, "you set me up, didn't you?"

The two aces laughed together, and Vita continue trying to break free as her master was called into the stage doors of the auditorium. Meanwhile, Bathory had turned around entirely by now, transfixed by the scene in front of him.

"Midchildians don't have any concept of 'personal space', do they?" he wondered. Immediately, his train of thought was broken by a high pitched shout coming from behind him.

"NANOHAAAAAAAAAA!"

Vita and Nanoha turned their heads to see what was going on, and then Vita shot Bathory a glare of 'do-your-damn-job'. Bathory spun around, expecting another fangirl, and he got exactly what he expected. A young girl was running down the hall, and it was almost scary how much she tried to resemble the ace of aces. Her brown hair was done up like how Nanoha's used to look, and she had decided to go into her barrier jacket, which - surprise, surprise - looked just like how Nanoha's used to look. Bathory made eye contact with the girl and he saw that her eyes, as well, matched Nanoha's - as blue as the sky, and sparkling with anticipation.

It was only as they looked at each other that Bathory realized he'd met this girl before, and had done something terrible to her.

Siba. Somewhere in the longs months that he was on the run.

She had found him out. He had panicked.

The flashback shot across his vision, with everything he did burning itself into his brain. Every attack he made, and every time she was struck by them.

Her device, shattered on the sand. Her futile struggles to escape.

His device to her head, and her resignation.

In the present, the young girl slowed to a halt. It was obvious that she realized the exact same thing about him, and the same memory ran through her mind. Tears began to well up in her eyes, and she began to back away. Across from her, Bathory forced himself to do something, and he slowly held his left hand out.

"Wait...wait...I..."

She flinched, as if he'd returned to finish the job - as if he could hurt her from there. Backing up faster, she turned and sprinted away.

"No!" Bathory shouted. "No, please, I'm not...I'm not..."

He trailed off as the girl disappeared, and his hand slowly lowered again. Behind him, Nanoha and Vita stared off down the hall as well. None of the three made a sound for a few seconds. Finally, Vita spoke up.

"I...I can go get her if you want."

"No" said Nanoha, putting Vita down and heading after the girl. "I'll do it."

As Nanoha walked off, Vita looked back and forth between the Ace and the stage doors where she was expected any second now.

"Na-Nanoha, you can't just run off! Nanoha!"

* * *

She ran until she found an empty room with an open door, and buried herself in the back corner of it. Her clothing transformed from her barrier jacket back into the standard ground forces uniform. Laying low, knees folded up to her chest, she sobbed and cried out between deep breaths. She'd been terrified for so long at the thought that he'd come back, but slowly she had gotten past that, driven by the thought of transferring to Midchilda, meeting Nanoha, and growing stronger. But he was here as well, and the footsteps she could hear were assuredly Bathory coming to deliver the final shot. Her eyes closed, she cried again as she felt someone's hands wrap around her and pull her in.

Nanoha held the girl close. "It's okay," she whispered. "Nothing is going to happen to you."

The girl looked up at Nanoha and wrapped her own arms tightly around the Ace.

The instructor smiled. "Minasa, isn't it?"

Minasa Kimisho nodded her head. "I...y...yes..."

"I'm glad I could see you again. A big girl such as yourself, who helped Fate with her investigation so much - I knew you'd be picked to transfer here."

The young girl giggled and she pulled away so she could look into her idol's eyes. Blue met blue, but Minasa doubted herself and looked away. She wanted so much to be like Nanoha, but again she realized how far behind she was.

"I'm sorry I got scared. I...I...An Ace doesn't get scared. I shouldn't have..."

"Don't think that" said Nanoha, guiding the young girl back to her. "I'm scared. You ran off, and I was scared for you. I want to make sure everything's alright."

"O...okay..."

Bathory stood in the entrance of the room and reached his hand over to knock on the wall. Minasa heard the sound, looked up, and immediately buried herself in Nanoha again with a loud gasp. Nanoha looked behind her as Bathory cautiously made his way over to the two of them.

"Um, I'm not...not trying to do anything bad here. I...well..."

Though he couldn't find anything to say, he continued to slowly approach the other mages. He knelt down in front of Nanoha, who slowly turned to reveal the girl.

"Minasa," she said as she rubbed the girl's head, "he's not going to hurt you."

"What if he is?" Minasa asked, her eyes still shut.

Bathory tried to answer, but he still had trouble. "I'm...I'm not. Really. Just...just-"

"I won't let him" said Nanoha, looking straight at Bathory.

Still, Minasa looked away. "A...are you sure?"

"I'm sure."

"R...really?"

Bathory and Nanoha stared at each other for a second, both frozen in place. Nanoha smiled, and rubbed Minasa's head one more time.

"Really."

Bathory looked away and laughed nervously. When he looked back, the girl's blue eyes were open, and ready to give him a chance. Still, he never quite had to do damage control on this level before.

He took a deep breath. "Minasa," he said timidly, "I...I don't have an excuse. Didn't have one then, don't have one now. I went too far, and I completely understand why you're scared of me. Since then, I've wanted to apologize, but I never thought I'd get the opportunity to. But somehow, we're both together - on Midchilda of all places - so here; I'm sorry. For hurting you and for wanting to hurt you. And I won't do anything like that to you again."

The room was quiet again, and Bathory's face slowly drooped more and more. Finally, he looked away shamefully.

"No, I'm sorry, that was really bad...I...I mean..."

Minasa struggled just as much trying to console Bathory. "No, no, it...it..."

Vita came running into the room. "Nanoha," she yelled rapidly, "you have to get going! Hayate's been stalling for you long enough."

Nanoha looked down at the young girl. "Are you ready to go?" she asked, holding on to her hand as they stood up.

Minasa nodded, and Nanoha walked them across the room, hurried along by Vita. Minasa looked back once more at Bathory, but it wasn't a fearful gaze anymore. Bathory couldn't really tell what emotion it was.

Alone in the room, he released all the tension and awkwardness that had been building up, and he collapsed against the wall.

"Aphelion, I'm such a liar."

[WHY DO YOU SAY THAT, MASTER - YOUR REACTIONS WERE GENUINE AND FIT ACCORDINGLY TO PREVIOUS THOUGHTS ON THE MATTER]

"No, no, not about that. I'm very glad that she's alive, and I'm alive, and we could get this settled. That was more about how I said I wanted to apologize. Really, I hoped I'd never see her again. Just like the rest of everything - It all happened, it's all finished, and I just want to keep going. Go back to Siba, talk to Arin and Dad again, get a new position, and just...go. Just go on."

[I DISAGREE WITH THAT STATEMENT - I BELIEVE YOU OFFERED HER A SENSE OF CLOSURE THAT SHE WOULD NOT HAVE EXPERIENCED OTHERWISE]

Bathory laughed. "She seemed just fine while she was running down the hall in her Nanoha outfit. But maybe you're right."

After another few seconds of silence, the mage continued. "She looked like Nanoha then as well, didn't she? And she came all the way here, too." His opinions slowly shifting with the topic, he held his hand up and looked right at his device. "She's a Siban. She should have her own identity, but instead she's being led entirely by example. You know this, and we've seen this. Girls running around with their hair like Nanoha's, barrier jacket like Nanoha's, device like Nanoha's - everything like someone else. Maybe while I'm still here, I should help her."

[WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT]

"I'll talk to her some more. Show her that I'm not a threat." Bathory looked at the opposite wall and smiled. "And if she can reconcile with me, the rest of Siba can."

[YOUR WORDING ON THE SUBJECT LEAVES ME WITH QUESTIONS, MASTER - YOU SHOULD TAKE CAUTION WITH YOUR METHODS]

Bathory stood up. "Aphelion, you've been my device for a long time. I don't think you should worry."

* * *

He waited outside the room until all the kids began to leave and head off to their training. When Minasa left, she saw him standing across the hall, and he beckoned her over. She hesitated a bit, but moved forward with more confidence than before.

"Um, Bathory?"

"Hey, I hope you're better now. Ready to go out and train?"

Minasa perked up again. "Yeah! Nanoha even said she'd pick me for a demonstration. I don't know what she'll be demonstrating, but still."

Bathory's eye twitched a bit, but he recovered. He took a breath and responded to her.

"Well, I know we don't really know each other, and it still might be hard to accept me."

"No, no, I understand" said Minasa, shaking her head. "I understand that you-"

"And that's why I think we should get to know each other a bit more. Tomorrow, why don't you come with me for a bit of extra training? You'll get some things that you definitely won't get from Nanoha. From a Siban to a Siban."

Minasa was slightly confused by Bathory's minor insult, but, like her idol, she tried to see the best in people. "Okay," she replied, with only a hint of worry in her voice. As the last of the students headed off, Minasa spun around and followed them outside.

* * *

**Longer A/N:**

It only took me a good six months to get back to writing my Nanoha stuff. Lots of thinking was involved. Again, I plan things for waaaaaay too long.

So hey guys. Like I said at the start of RtS (I'll probably start referring to the previous story as RtS and this as RtD), I think the whole universe of the Nanoha series is pretty good for exploration. A universe where mostly everyone is magic, and it's just...part of life. Where as many things could happen on each individual planet as could happen on any city in the real world. Like I said before, I think they could take the magic system and put it in a game like City Of Heroes and it would be pretty good.

So RtS was an attempt to show something happening on a world far off in the universe, where the planet's TSAB is run with more the values that the planet's government itself favored. Admittedly, it was more an action story than a character drama, but at least a couple people stayed through to the end and liked it. RtD, now, is me trying to show those character conflicts a little more. Again, I like the actual 'main' universe of Nanoha, so unless I do something completely wrong, this will be self-contained in that and won't run into ViVid or Sound Stage X or Force and start screwing those up. If it does, then screw it, Alternate Universe time! But back on topic, Bathory is a Siban on Midchilda. He, and the other Sibans that will show up, have different views on things than a Midchildian might have (and are still different among each other), and, thus, trouble might occur.

It sounds a little strange, yes, but hey, RtS got its fans who put up with things like me naming a character "Murder" and having an awful first chapter on release (although the name thing _was_ a joke), and I have tried to write this one better. Review if you'd like, reply if you'd like, and enjoy.

FINALLY: I'd like to thank **Kireen**, who asked me about some plot things after I finished RtS which I hadn't really thought about, and so I thought of things and added parts to the plot that might not be there otherwise. So you kind-of-sort-of-helped with writing this. Talk to me, people! I miss things when I'm talking to myself.


	2. Benefactors Part 1

**A/N: **I'm updating quickly at the beginning to give you guys a good few chapters, but then I might have to slow for a while. I know end of year is really hectic, but I didn't want to stall this for another few months. And also, every first chapter is the most potentially sketchy, so this and part 3 will be a better indicator of things.

I'm also going to do the first might-be-wrong-with-canon thing and say that for this story, the giant training simulator from StrikerS that could make cities and stuff is still up and running. If it's not, then I can destroy it later on. No biggie. It might even be funny.

* * *

A true Siban doesn't back down.

Heading up to Minasa's room, Bathory repeated that mantra to himself, trying to stay positive about what would happen and telling himself he had to follow through. He had the night to think it over, and Minasa had the night to think it over, and he had to be wary of that. She seemed receptive to him in the end, but maybe overnight something had happened. Maybe, in the darkness, her fears had presented themselves again and had convinced her otherwise. Maybe her attacker was just waiting for the perfect moment to strike again, so maybe her door would be locked shut, her bed blocking any entry to the best of the nine year old's abilities. And maybe Bathory should just forget this whole thing and go back to his room.

"Or..." he muttered to himself as he gazed into her room, "maybe she'd just leave it open."

He walked in freely to find the girl sitting cross-legged on her bed, staring up at a movie that was being projected onto a holographic screen on the wall. Aside from that detail, the room looked about the same as all other cadets' rooms looked. Bathory looked up at the movie, and resisted the urge to groan.

That was obviously a child Nanoha on screen.

Bathory put on a smile that was little bit fake now and approached the girl.

"Minasa."

He got her attention, but she didn't react much. Her eyes glued to the screen, she only muttered "Hi."

Bathory looked at the movie again, and the shot had cut to show a child version of Fate.

"Soooo," he said, "what are you watching?"

"The Nanoha movie. I've seen it six times."

The two of them continued to look up and watch the action. Nanoha and Fate were battling above the ocean as tornadoes of water formed around them. Back and forth the two would go, shooting a few more spells at each other before Nanoha would say something hero-related and Fate would say something in response and next to Bathory, Minasa was absolutely entrenched, whispering _every single line of dialog _under her breath.

Bathory had enough.

"Well, I think we should get going, shouldn't we?" He walked over to the screen, tapping the interface a couple of times to shut it off. Minasa finally looked at him, though it took a few seconds for her to re-enter the real world. Though, when she did, she rebounded very quickly, shuffling off the bed and heading over towards the other Siban.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

"We're just heading out for a bit. Hopefully one of the training facilities is open. Again, I'm just trying to help you along." He headed back out of Minasa's room and she followed him, shutting the door behind her.

"And, of course," he finished, "I haven't gotten to fight in a while."

The two of them headed through the building, holding each other by the hand as they pushed through the traffic. Bathory hadn't really needed to come back to the mainland in his time here, and so he hadn't really seen the demographic for Midchilda in person. As he looked, it seemed to fit what he'd been told it was like: mostly female, with the younger mages still in the ground forces program while the older ones had 'moved on' to 'higher positions', as his fellow Sibans had characterized them. And some of these mages had the strangest hair colors as well. On Siba, at least, mages were born with normal color, like brown, or black, or red, or something close to normal! Of course, every Siban mage also knew that they must put something in the water here anyways, so maybe this was just a side effect of that.

Finally, the two stepped outside, facing the coastline of the capital city. In the distance was the large outdoor facility that stuck into the ocean which had almost become a centerpiece for the Midchildian TSAB. At the moment, it was active. Entire city blocks had risen up from the arena on a scale that only a planet such as Midchilda could do. It was faint and off in the distance, but a battle could be heard going on within the constructed city. It may have been a cliché phrase, but the arena looked to be a virtual playground for anyone who could use it.

In front of those were some buildings that the two Sibans were more familiar with. The more standard training facilities offered a much more limited scale, but it served their purposes. All the same types of drones could be used, and, if the restrictions that came with the facility were bypassed, creative situations could still be simulated.

Out of the clutter, Bathory could tell Minasa what he'd been wanting to say.

"Minasa, here's why I'm bringing you out here. You're a Siban, and I'm a Siban. In fact we are probably the only two people from that planet on this planet right now. Did you see everyone in the TSAB back there? Think - that was just one little bit. One little sample of all the mages on this world, ground forces, air forces, whatever - and none of them have what you or I have."

"Huh?" Minasa asked. Looking back at the complex, she didn't understand what the older mage was getting at.

Bathory turned around and looked back out into the city of Cranagan. Even with other buildings in the way, he could still catch most of the Time-Space Admistration Bureau Main Office rising up into the sky.

"That," he said, pointing to it, "is who leads them. But THAT," he continued, lowering his arm to point at the complex, "is who they follow."

Minasa was still confused. "I don't...I...wha?"

"Nanoha!" Bathory shouted, motioning with his hands for emphasis. "She's the one everybody looks up to, and she's the one everybody wants to be."

Minasa stood up straight and looked up at Bathory with newfound energy.

"Ahh, Nanoha!" she said. Every sentence had an exclamation mark. "Yesterday was amazing. She brought us outside and we all got to fight with her a little. We all tried our hardest, but we couldn't even touch her. She picked me to fight her alone at the end, but..."

"But?"

Minasa closed her eyes and laughed nervously. "Well...I couldn't keep flying that long, and I kinda fell...and my stance was all wrong..."

By this point, the two had reached the doors of the first indoor facility. Bathory looked inside, and it didn't look like anyone was in there - only minimal light was enabled, and the console seemed to be on standby. Immediately inside the facility was the control room, with a long screen projected onto the wall that blocked off the rest of the place for the actual simulations, aside from a door to allow access into the back. Below that screen was a panel at chest-height that ran along the wall, with another screen built on top of it and a couple chairs tucked in below it. Bathory walked over to the panel and used the screen at his chest to type into the console. The lights glowed to their maximum, and both mages watched the room come to life.

Minasa reached into her pocket and held out a blue sphere. "It's time to show what I can do" she yelled for dramatic effect, then tossed the sphere into the air. "Radiant Heart, set up!"

She disappeared into a haze of white light, and Bathory cringed spectacularly.

"I forgot she called it that..."

After far too long, Minasa returned in her barrier jacket, again with the same look as the Ace of Aces. She had both hands on a white staff, which, in simple terms, was Raising Heart but the jewel on top was blue instead of red, and the other red highlights were just color swapped as well.

She had gotten back her conviction, though. "I'm ready," she said, standing in a new battle stance. "With this stance, I can focus my shots by another ten percent."

Bathory held out his arms. "Okay, let me finish what I was trying to say. The best and strongest thing about a mage is his or her identity. The unique abilities and way you use them that only you can do. And that's why you're lucky to come from Siba. Somewhere that doesn't follow the exact same guidelines and imitate the Midchildian TSAB to the letter. Somewhere that isn't - or at least, isn't as - devoted in imitating its controller."

The older mage focused on the large blue gem at the top of Minasa's Device. "Let's start with your weapon. Now, I understand that you may not be able to get your own individual device."

As he said that, he flicked his right hand around and spun the sun-shaped gem of his own device up into his hand. He continued to play with it as he spoke.

"But still, that looks like it came from a toy store. Something you got for your birthday. Something mass-produced for all the girls who want to be the next Ace."

Minasa looked down at the staff. "But..."

Bathory sighed, wondering if he should ask the question that came to his mind, then deciding he might as well. "Minasa, what's your current rank?"

The girl's eyes moved from her staff all the way down to the floor. "I'm..." she mumbled, "...still a D. Nanoha says she can help me pass my C-rank test, but I've tried so many times..."

Eying a weapons rack across the room, Bathory headed over to it. "Here - maybe there's a connection. Maybe trying to do what Nanoha does is holding you back. I just think that it might be best if we try something different."

Bathory opened the rack up and was greeted by the standby forms of various Midchildian devices. He looked across each row trying to find something that wasn't yet another staff, but soon he started running out of devices.

"What the hell," he muttered. "Is there anything Belkan in here? Like, literally anything?"

Finally, on the very bottom row, he found a Belkan device. With a triumphant cry, he activated it, watching the handle extend out in both directions. A blade of energy began to form on one end of the device, extending back down on the handle as well as reaching out beyond it. When it had fully activated, the pole was almost as tall as he was, and the blade reached up and down a good two feet from end to end.

He stepped into the middle of the room, twirling the device around and testing it out. Though Aphelion was his main device, he'd used a regular Belkan device enough times to know when it was good, and the one he just found was surprisingly adequate, given how it had almost been tucked away. He gripped it in both hands one more time, focusing the maximum power his limiter allowed him to use into the device. In response, the blade glowed brightly and shot out another half a foot in both directions. Satisfied, he tossed it over to Minasa, who shrieked, dropped her own device, shut her eyes, flailed her arms, and somehow still caught it. The blade immediately shrunk down like it was deflating.

"Come on," said Bathory, "put something into it. Try it out."

Nervously, Minasa opened her eyes, and tried looking at the foreign object in her hands. Acting like it might attack her, she slowly and cautiously focused her energy into it and the blade began to glow again. Little by little, the blade expanded; however, it ended right after it began, still pitifully small compared to what Bathory could do.

The older mage sighed and went back over to the console. "Still, it's worth a shot. I'll load up something simple for you to try it out on."

He sat down and began to look through what the facility could simulate. Again, this was almost exactly like the facilities on Siba that Bathory had trained in before, and it didn't take him long to load up a single gadget drone. On the video feed above, both mages watched the solitary robot phase into the giant empty room next door.

Minasa walked up to the console, and Bathory patted on the back.

"Go ahead. Show me what you can do."

Still holding the Belkan device away from her body, the young girl looked back at her regular device, still lying there on the ground. Bathory noticed her hesitation, got up, and all but forced her over to the door.

"Go on Minasa. I set it to your rank - get in there and rip it apart."

He opened the door as well and pushed the girl through it, into the empty space. She looked back at him, but he shut the door and headed back over to the console. Through the video feed of the simulation, he could see the girl slowly approaching the drone until she stood about sixty feet away. Then, she stopped, looking over at the drone and clutching the device with white knuckles. Opposite of her, the drone bobbed up and down, waiting to be activated.

"Okay," said Bathory, making sure his voice was transmitted, "here's what I'm doing. I'll count down from three, and then I'll start this. You just go from there."

Minasa looked all around as the mage's voice echoed in from all directions.

"But...but I..."

"You've done training before, right? This isn't any different."

Minasa looked over at the drone and got ready. "Fine."

Bathory smiled to himself. He ready did have high hopes for this. Most mages on Siba practiced Modern Belkan, and he was sure that something would awaken inside the girl - that she would find out powers she didn't think she had.

"Then here we go. Three, two, one, go."

He started up the drone while Minasa shut her eyes again and charged forwards, pointing the blade right in front of her and shouting a loud (though terrified) war cry. The drone spent a second coming to life, and as the girl kept running at it, it noticed her, acquired her position, calculated her path, and began charging a shot.

Bathory's head had slammed against the monitor before the drone even finished. He could only listen as it fired at Minasa, who didn't even bother trying to block it. Her screams turned louder and more surprised as she flew back a couple feet, sliding on the ground. Through the speakers, both mages heard a pleasant female voice.

[USER DEFEATED - ENDING SIMULATION]

The gadget drone phased away, leaving Minasa alone in the large room as she picked herself up.

"Umm, Bathory?" she called out.

"...Yes?"

"I'm...I'm sorry." Tears began to form, threatening to run from her eyes.

"It's alright. Come on."

Back in the control room, Bathory had sat up and was busy seeing what else was in the simulation bank. Minasa timidly opened the door and disengaged the device.

"I...r...really, I..."

"It's fine. I know you can't just swap devices and do well the first time. But I think we should stick with it. We really should. It'll happen."

The young girl walked back over to her old device, which had also disengaged back into its standby form. She picked it up, holding it in her left hand with the Belkan device in her right. After a while with the only sound in the room being Bathory tapping on the screen, he suddenly turned around excitedly and reached for the girl.

"Minasa, come here. Look at this."

The young girl turned around and looked at Bathory, but soon her eyes were drawn up to the video feed, with a very familiar woman hovering in the middle of the room.

"Nanoha!"

"I didn't know you could simulate real people on this" said Bathory, going back to the screen. "You certainly can't on Siba." The touchscreen changed to show some more options to him, with a few numbers shown along the bottom. Bathory hit 'number one', and Nanoha's barrier jacket and hair changed colors to be red. Pressing number two changed them to blue, three changed them to green, and four changed them to yellow. Bathory tapped one more random option, and the simulated Nanoha changed her costume once again. Her hair went back to being brown, but was darker than before and ended at the back of her neck. Her color scheme turned dark purple with light red highlights, and Raising Heart's colors changed themselves to match.

Minasa looked on. "What kind of option is that?"

Bathory looked down, but he hadn't been paying attention that time.

"I...uhh...I have no idea" he laughed. "However, if I can simulate her, then I'm wondering if it's possible to do this..."

He went back to the control panel, typed on it for a couple seconds, and then the image of Nanoha faded away and was replaced by that of Fate's.

"Yes!" shouted Bathory. "This is going to be so awesome." He immediately set about checking Fate's color schemes as well. Like before, there was the standard red Fate, standard blue Fate, standard green Fate, standard yellow Fate...

"Ah, Fate..." said Minasa.

"Hey," Bathory interrupted. "Don't say anything about Fate, alright? She has done a lot of great things and has kicked a lot of ass. Including mine."

Minasa perked up again. "Right - I heard you two fought before you left Siba..."

Bathory rested his elbow on the console. "Yeah. You want to know how that went?"

"Um...sure?"

"It. Went. Great. After you factor out, like, everything else, it was pretty amazing. I wish I could fight her more legitimately, though. Maybe again when she's not trying to get me to stop fighting and I'm not betraying her and...and it's more...you know, not..."

Reality came back hard on Bathory at that moment. Everything was awful for every party then, and now everything's just elevated to 'in question'. He'd know tomorrow how Siba felt about him now, and something just worried him about that. He tried to convince himself otherwise, but he knew that few people on Siba were good at forgiving and forgetting.

"Hey...hey Bathory?" Minasa asked, looking up at the screen.

Bathory looked up, and saw that whatever button his elbow was on, it was allowing him to conjure up multiple versions of Fate. At the moment, there were four versions of Fate in the area, one in each color. Slowly, Bathory turned to the other mage.

"Famous last words, I know, but I've always wanted to do this."

He attacked the control panel with ferocity, changing each Fate copy to be the same color, then spawning more in and changing the color on them. He looked up and admired his work: In the arena were eight Fates, four on red team and four on blue team. Bathory looked back at the control panel and noticed an option he'd missed before.

"Of course full power" he said, reaching down and tapping a button rapidly until a slider below it had moved all the way to the right. He leaned back and took it in one more time; eight copies of the legendary ace Fate Testarossa Harlaown were hovering side by side in the facility, with copies of Bardiche all in hand. Four red, four blue. And all they needed was one little activation.

Bathory held his finger out and slowly lowered it down to the console. With a deep breath, he dropped his finger onto the panel and all eight copies immediately came to life. A split second later, they began to fizzle out, the lighting in the facility began to flicker, and then everything went dead.

Bathory rose from his seat, hands pressed against the panel. Over the speakers, the pleasant voice could be heard again.

[AUTOMATIC SYSTEM OVERRIDE ENABLED - SYSTEM RESET REQUIRED - AUTOMATIC SYSTEM OVERRIDE ENABLED]

Both mages looked around the control room nervously, wondering if anything more would happen than the voice playing its message over and over. When it continued like that for a few seconds, Bathory chuckled and grabbed Minasa by the arm.

"I broke it, didn't I? Let's...uhh...let's move on, shall we?"

He dragged her back over to the exit and back outside, making a speedy escape from the facility.

Minasa tried to pull away. "Wait, wait. Where are we going?"

"That was enough 'training' for one day; you can go back now. Or actually..."

He looked and saw that the outdoor arena was still in use, the simulated structures towering above the ocean. The sounds of battle could still be heard within it. Intrigued again, Bathory began to head over there, still dragging the girl along.

"Let's go see what they're doing over here."

* * *

The path to the arena was a walkway the edged up right next to the ocean, only separated by a guardrail and a short drop. On the other side, a wall was built where the walkway stayed the same elevation but the rest of the ground rose up into a hill. Sticking close to the edge, Bathory walked along the path, just able to catch a glimpse or two of what was going on through all the buildings that were in the way. From what he could see, there were two people in the fake city, and though the first one could have been anybody, there was only one person Bathory knew of with purple hair and a flaming sword.

"Signum."

He began to run over to the arena, still holding on to Minasa who could barely keep up without falling.

"Wait, Bathory, please!"

"Minasa, you have to see this. There is no one in the UNIVERSE better at Belkan fighting than a Wolkenritter. Just watch and be amazed."

The two ran along the walkway over to the entrance to the arena. Standing by the entrance, leaning up against the railing, a teenaged girl with blue hair pumped her first and shouted out to the arena.

"Go Tia go!" she cried. "You're doing great!"

Next to the girl, a couple screens showed close-ups of the two combatants. It appeared that Signum was going up against some girl with orange hair, and it also appeared that Signum was winning. As another explosion happened inside the city, the orange-haired girl ducked behind a wall and held her pistol up in defense.

"Thank you, Subaru," she said sarcastically. "That is duly noted."

Outside the arena, the two Sibans gathered next to Subaru and looked out at the battle.

"See, Minasa?" asked Bathory. "Look at her. A Wolkenritter in the flesh. The perfect example of what Belkan is capable of." He rested both elbows on the railing, a wide smile fixed across his face. "The perfect combination of speed, power, grace, and everything else that makes a knight a knight."

Looking over to the screens, Bathory saw that on the battlefield, Signum was hovering in the air, staring at a building that her target had no doubt escaped into.

"Laevatien," said the knight, holding her device with both hands on the handle, "Schlangeform!" She swung her device out to the side, and the sword fell into a bunch of smaller sections, connected together in a long whip.

The smile spread even further across Bathory's face. "And, of course, the final part," he finished, "spells that I don't even KNOW how the hell you say them."

Signum began to swing the massive whip around, concentrating on the building she was about to tear into. Finally, the flame knight paused and drew back her device, ready to strike.

"Schlangebeißen!"

She swung the whip forward into the building, tearing an entire chunk out of it and revealing her opponent, forcing the girl to retreat again. On the sidelines, Subaru wasn't dampened at all by her friend's position.

"Go Tia!" she repeated. "I believe in you."

"Subaru, please," Teana shot back, "I need to focus."

As smoke rose into the air from the attack, Bathory looked over at Subaru and made small talk.

"So, what is your friend possibly doing to end up battling a Wolkenritter?"

Subaru looked over at him and laughed.

"Ah, well, Fate said Tia needed some extra training, abut she was kinda busy herself, soooo..."

"Right, right." Bathory looked away, but he had the thought that 'Subaru' as a name sounded familiar. He turned back to her.

"We've met before, haven't we?"

"Huh? I...yeah..."

"It's coming back to me...I remember going somewhere. And, like, ten other people going there with me. It was crowded as hell."

"Ahaha, well..."

Bathory snapped his fingers. "I was going over to Maritime, wasn't I?"

Subaru almost jumped. "Ah, right! We were going to bring Cinque home."

"Right. You and your twenty sisters."

"Subaru" shouted Teana over the intercom, "are you talking to someone? Please just...just hold off on that, ok?" She had barely finished her question when another explosion rocked her, and she went running again.

As before, Subaru offered her own type of help. "Tia! You can win this - I know it."

"Not if you keep distracting me, you idiot."

On Bathory's other side, Minasa pulled on his shirt.

"What's going on? I can't see."

Bathory apologized and moved Minasa over to his left side so she could at least see the screen. However, Subaru took one look at the girl and immediately rushed in to grab her.

"Oh, wow!" the blue-haired girl exclaimed. She picked Minasa up and rubbed her cheek against Minasa's. "You look just like a cute little Nanoha."

Bathory sighed and looked away. "Exactly," he muttered.

Subaru carried the girl over to the screens and looked straight at the one featuring Teana.

"Tiiiiiiiiaaaaaaaa?"

"What do you want?" Teana whispered. "Since you obviously can't tell, I'm in the middle of something."

"Look at what Iiiiiiiiiii haaaaaaaaave."

"Subaru, no. It...it can wait, okay?"

"But she's cuuuuuuuuuute."

"Subaru! I'm not going to see what you have when I'm in the MIDDLE OF MY TRAINING." Teana reached her limit, and began to hurl insults at Subaru. "Maybe if you'd leave me alone for ONE SECOND, I could get something done here, and then I'll come and-"

The entire screen showing Teana was engulfed in the largest explosion yet, and both cameras cut out completely. All three mages on the sidelines looked up at the false city as the shockwave shook the buildings and even more smoke rose up into the air. After a couple seconds of nothing, the camera remained static, and Subaru laughed again.

"Ehhhhh, Tia?"

From out of the smoke, a teenaged girl walked out from the arena and over to the entrance to it. Her barrier jacket was roughed up and she coughed from the smoke, but she continued to stride angrily over to her friend.

"Subaru, you idiot!"

Subaru put Minasa down and braced herself.

"Tiiiiiaaaaaaaaaa..."

"You absolute idiot!" Teana put her hands on Subaru's shoulders and shook the girl senseless. "You don't even think that maybe you should NOT distract me during MY training? When I'M trying to battle?"

Following up behind the girl, Signum landed by the group.

"Teana, the results of your training today were unsatisfactory."

Teana turned her head, still holding on to Subaru, though she paused the shaking for a bit.

"I know, Signum. I know." She turned back to face Subaru, and shook her a few more times. "But maybe if people didn't keep distracting me, I could do a little better." Finally, she released her grip, and Subaru wobbled back and forth.

"Tiiiiaaaaaa, I'm dizzy now..."

Teana sighed and crossed her arms. "Alright, show me what you wanted to show me."

Subaru shook herself back to normal and picked up Minasa again. "Look at her, Tia. She's like a little Nanoha. She even came to watch you."

Teana stood there, frozen by the thought that Subaru had lost even more brain cells. She didn't have words to respond to her friend. They just didn't come.

"Actually," said Bathory, stepping into the conversation, "she's with me. And we need to talk to Signum."

The flame knight turned her head, and Bathory came up to greet her.

"First of all, Signum, I have to say it's a pleasure to meet you again. Name's Bathory Kardenis, since you probably didn't get that last time, and I'm a big fan of you - all four of you, really. In fact, I'm... we all are, everyone on Siba - oh, right, I'm from Siba, maybe you've heard of it - world eighty four, it's kind of far away, but we're heavy practitioners of Belkan - well, modern, of course, so yeah - actually, I have a friend back on Siba, his name's Arin, um, and he'd really like to meet you someday. I think we all would-"

"What do you want?" Signum interrupted.

"What do - oh, right, right." Bathory looked over at Minasa, who was still being held like a teddy bear by Subaru. Teana forced her friend to put the girl down as Bathory continued.

"This is Minasa. She is struggling. She's having a tough time passing her next ranking test. I'm just wondering if it would be possible for you to do something to help her. Is this facility done? Like, is someone up after you?"

"This session should run another five minutes" said Signum. "However, given Junior Enforcer Lanster's performance and her attempts to end early, I may need to extend it."

"What?" Teana shouted. "End early? I just came out here to smack this idiot around for distracting me, which WAS WHY I did so badly. Please, Signum, I didn't mean anything by it. And besides, I've got other plans after this."

Minasa raised her hand and spoke up. "It...it's okay, really. I'll ask Nanoha to help me next class. I'm sure she will."

Signum's eyes opened slightly.

"Nanoha?"

Subaru's eyes opened wide.

"Nanoha!"

Signum shook her head. "I won't turn a Midchildian into a Belkan. If she is a student of Instructor Takamachi, she should have no problem receiving the help she needs."

"No, no, listen," said Bathory, "I'm just asking you to help her out in things like battle strategy and self-confidence - how to really get in there and do something. Here- you said this is free for a few minutes, right? Spar with me."

Signum couldn't hold back a slight chuckle. "Spar with you?"

"Yeah. Two Belkans facing off and fighting to their best - maybe it'll show Minasa some of what she's missing."

"This session today was for Junior Enforcer Lanster to work on her abilities in a battle. I won't use it to fight someone who showed up out of the blue with a request to take in a girl who doesn't need my help."

"Signum, I-"

"And I am also currently wondering how much of this is about her and how much of this is about you. Find someone else."

"Signum, please. You're breaking my heart here-"

"I'll do it!" yelled Subaru, piercing the conversation and causing all four others to look at her.

"I'll spar with him," she continued. "Actually, I use Modern Belkan as well."

"Umm," said Bathory, "you're a little young to fight me. I'm approaching twenty, and you're approaching what, sixteen? Seventeen?"

"Wait up," said Teana. "Age has nothing to do with it, and this girl hits harder than you think. What's your rank?"

"Oh, it's...uhh...A. Plus. A Plus" he lied.

"Perfect" replied Subaru.

Teana looked down at the device clamped around Bathory's leg.

"Before or after the limiter?"

"Oh, it's - no, this is nothing." Bathory looked down at it as well, again annoyed at how much it was still affecting him. He continued lying. "It's not actually doing anything by now. It'll be off in a few days - really, it's just a formality. But ok, sure, let's go."

"Very well" said Teana. Both combatants looked over at Signum, who shrugged and stepped aside, leaving the arena open for entry. Subaru ran off into it while Bathory knelt down to talk to his fellow Siban.

"Hey Minasa," he said, "watch carefully. Watch and see what Belkan fighting can do."

He got back up and headed down into the city as well. During the walk, he held his right hand up and looked at the green gem that had been with him for years.

"Aphelion, time to wake up. You ready?"

[AFFIRMATIVE, MASTER - ALL SYSTEMS ARE OPERATIONAL AND FUNCTIONING AT ONE HUNDRED PERCENT]

"Yeah, except for half my magic. Can't forget that little detail."


	3. Benefactors Part 2

Subaru had positioned herself inside the city, standing in the middle of a wide road. Bathory took his place further down the road, directly facing his opponent. Around them, the damage from before had repaired itself, and the city looked pristine and untouched by any battles.

"You haven't fought a Siban before, have you?" Bathory yelled. "I'm sure you'll remember this."

Grinning, Subaru returned the volley. "Try your best to keep up."

Back on the side, Signum watched the two from the screen.

"Both of you, get ready."

The two combatants stood, ready to begin, and almost simultaneously activated their devices.

"Revolver Knuckle, Mach Caliber, set up!"

"Aphelion, go!"

Both mages disappeared into a white haze and returned in their barrier jackets. Subaru looked as she normally did - headband tied above her eyes, white and blue jacket ending above her midriff, her devices attached neatly around her wrist and on her feet. Across from her, Bathory appeared sporting significantly more chest and leg coverage than the girl, but with a similarly simple look. His basic color was gray instead of white, the color highlights were dark green instead of blue, and there were more prominent bits as stripes of the color ran from the front of his jacket down to the sides of it.

Coincidentally, his device was also wrapped around his right arm, though it had several firing ports that stuck out around his hand and a groove that ran along the right side of it. Another gauntlet was around his left wrist, and this also had a groove on the outside. The firing ports on his main weapon readjusted themselves as Bathory looked down the road at Subaru.

"Nice," he shouted, noticing Revolver Knuckle. "Around the arm - best place, I think. It can't just get pulled out of your hands there."

"Ehhhhh," replied Subaru, "thanks?"

Again, Signum's voice echoed through the city. "All systems are ready. You may begin."

It began as all good battles do, with both parties charging at each other to meet in the middle. With Subaru's extra speed, however, she covered most of the distance and surprised her opponent with the first attack.

"Revolver Shoot!"

A blue ball of energy shot out from her device, traveling forward until it was blocked by a dark green triangle that formed in front of Bathory. He planted his back foot into the ground and stood firm, thinking to himself that Subaru did hit a little harder than he thought she would.

"Aphelion," he yelled, "return fire."

The green shield vanished and Bathory swung his arm up to face Subaru. Bursts of energy shot forward out of his device, causing Subaru to tuck low and skate from side to side. While she did that, she continued to fire back herself, forcing the Siban to worry about his barrier as well. As she got within melee range, Bathory held off on attacking and barked an order.

"Aphelion, we're going melee. Razor Form activ-"

Subaru surprised him again by lunging the final distance, grabbing Bathory's arm and using her roller blades to spin around. She smacked him on the back with her left hand and then used her momentum to throw Bathory out of the road, over to one of the buildings. As he bounced back up, Subaru stood with her hands on her sides.

"Tag! I win."

Bathory stood there, staring at her. The only sound that could be heard was Revolver Knuckle spinning away, having built up quite a bit of energy already.

At the control panel, Teana sighed loudly. "Subaru," she said, "this wasn't tag. You haven't won yet."

"But...if this were tag, I would have won, right?" asked Subaru, scratching her head.

"This is a standard match," said Signum. "Both contestants will battle until a clear victory is established by one of them. Please continue."

Bathory groaned. "Minasa," he said, "if you can hear this, I'm just a bit rusty, okay? Give me some time to get going."

[MASTER] asked his device.

"Yes, Aphelion?"

[WOULD YOU LIKE ME TO CONTINUE TRANSFORMATION INTO RAZOR FORM]

He groaned again. "No, Aphelion. Remain in standard."

Subaru brought her hands up, making two fists and punching them together. "Well, then, if you're ready to go, then let's go. Are you ready, partner?"

[LET'S GO, BUDDY]

Subaru got ready and rushed towards Bathory, Revolver Knuckle almost screaming from the energy built up. Bathory took a quick glance behind him at the building, and then spun around, holding his device against the building.

"Aphelion, Flight Driver!"

A thin blade of energy shot up out of the groove on the weapon's side and dug itself into the wall. As Subaru went for another attack, her opponent flew up out of the way and she skidded to a halt. Almost as soon as he had begun, Bathory detached from the wall, flipped himself over, dug his feet into the side, and lunged back down onto Subaru, dropping both of them onto the ground. He quickly got to his knees and aimed his device at the other mage as she lied on her back. It was silent for another few seconds, with the only sound again coming from Subaru's device.

A grin slowly formed itself on Bathory's lips. "Rule number one," he said, "a ground mage always has a way to get off the ground."

Subaru smiled back at him.

"Indeed, they do."

Her face suddenly changed back to being serious, and she clenched her right hand into a fist.

"Revolver Cannon!"

She swung her fist up at her attacker, putting all the energy stored from before into an attack. With another shout, Bathory's device put up a shield, but it still took in a lot of energy and its master was still tossed backwards off of Subaru. Quickly, she got back up and looked at her opponent.

"Indeed, they do" she repeated. "Wing Road."

She took off down the street, but flew to the side of Bathory and then left the ground, propelled along by a road of blue energy that followed her into the sky. The Siban mage jumped up and watched her go, taking in the sight. Looking down at the road, he took a hesitant step onto it, wondering if it would support him. When his question was answered and he was standing on it firmly, he held his device in front of him and looked up at the rest of the road.

"Aphelion, let's follow her. Flight Driver."

He rushed forwards as the blade appeared again, leaned down, and dug it into the strip, shooting across it and following it along. The road went high into the air and then curved back down, turning sharply to the left and winding down around a building. Bathory stopped himself and rested on the lane, his magic drained a little more than he would like and his breathing a little shallow.

"Aphelion, get me a Charged Multi-Shot. If I go forward, I'm playing along with her. Now she'll need to adjust to me."

[UNDERSTOOD - BEGINNING TO CHARGE]

The firing ports on Aphelion all began to glow together, starting from deep inside the barrels and expanding out as Bathory put more and more mana into it. At the same time, he kept watch for Subaru's return, checking around him for any sight of the girl. He was slightly above to top of the buildings, though, and so most of the city below him was out of view.

[MASTER] cried his device, [INCOMING FROM THE LEFT]

Bathory snapped around and saw Subaru barreling towards him again.

"Hello!" he yelled, diving to the side. Subaru crossed the previous road, speeding past it and her opponent. As her opponent got back up, Subaru formed the road in a twisting loop so she could turn around, and the road began to materialize in between her and Bathory. The previous road glowed once or twice and vanished, leaving the man with nowhere to escape except for leaping off into the city below.

"Aphelion, what's the status on the Multi-Shot?"

[CHARGING COMPLETE] said his device. [READY TO FIRE ON YOUR COMMAND]

"Okay, here we go. Now we're working."

He dropped to one knee and watched the blue speedster close the distance, arm ready to strike again. Soon, the collision was inevitable, and Bathory raised his device up, supporting it with his left arm.

"Fire!"

Several shots of green energy burst out of his device, seeking a target in his opponent. Subaru moved to slow down, and another barrier formed in front of her. The multiple shots were enough, though, to break the shield and throw Subaru off balance. She crashed into Bathory as the entire Wing Road disappeared and they both soared through the sky with as little grace as they could manage. After falling like a stalled plane for a second or two, they landed on the top of a tall, circular building. Bathory landed on his back and Subaru skidded along on her face, but the two eventually came to rest right by each other on the edge of the roof.

"Ahahahaha, sorry about that."

Subaru laughed meekly as she got up to her elbows and knees. Meanwhile, Bathory was staring right up into one of Midchilda's suns, and for some reason, he really didn't mind it. Still, he accepted Subaru's hand when she offered it, and the two fighters pulled themselves back up.

"You two," said Signum, "this session ends in two minutes. If you're going to finish the battle, finish it fast."

"I got it, I got it" said Bathory, nodding along. With another sigh, he looked across at the city at the edge of Cranagan, where Signum and the other mages were.

"Hey Minasa, seriously, can you hear me?"

Next to Signum, the girl looked up at the screen. "I can hear you" she said.

"Alright. The next thing you should learn from this is to be unpredictable."

As soon as he finished, he grabbed Subaru's arm, spun around her, and did the same thing she'd done to him earlier. As he guided her right off the roof, Subaru cried out in surprise and flailed around.

Teana's eyes shot open.

"Subaru, hold on!" she yelled, rushing over to the control panel. She frantically looked through the safety options as her friend fell.

"Tia, I'm good!" Subaru replied, flipping back around. She reached out to the building, and the blue road of magic shot down from the top of it and continuing down to the ground. Trying to slow herself, Subaru slid onto her side and dug the sides of her skates into the road. Still, the road was almost vertical, and she wasn't slowing down very quickly.

Her eyes still racing to catch up with her hands, Teana typed rapidly into the console, trying to stop her friend from hitting the ground. Hoping she wasn't too late, Teana finally found what she'd been looking for, and slammed her hand down onto the panel.

"Got it!"

Below Subaru, a bright white net of magic appeared above the ground. Startled, Subaru leveled herself out right before she hit it, even though this meant slamming into the road and skidding off the side of it. She reached her hand up and held onto the side for dear life, struggling to hold on. The seconds ticked by and as she continued to do so, Teana dropped from being worried back to being annoyed.

"Subaru," she said, "it's just the net."

"I know. I...I got scared."

Subaru began pulling herself back up, and Teana got to watch the whole thing. She closed her eyes, sighed, and turned around to suddenly find herself with an audience. Four more combat cyborgs were in front of her now.

"Gah!" she cried. "Where'd you come from?"

A purple-haired woman, the tallest of the four, smiled.

"Hello, Teana. We weren't expecting this."

"Yeah," said Wendi. "She said she'd be out here, and you'd be in there. What did we miss?"

Teana stammered. "Um...well..."

As the safety net dissipated, Subaru heard her sisters' voices and turned towards the entrance to the simulation. "Gin-nee! Wendi!" she shouted, waving her arm in the air.

Outside the arena, Signum walked over to the console and cut the audio going into the arena.

"Teana," she said, "it isn't nice to distract others during their session."

The orange-haired girl's jaw dropped and she froze in place, absolutely stunned by the knight's actions.

"Bu...bu...but Signum. She was doing that EXACT THING to me, and you just let it happen."

An almost-mischievous smirk appeared across Signum's face. "Distractions are an important enemy in battle. An Enforcer must learn to deal with them and tune them out."

"We...well look at Subaru. Completely distracted." Teana continued to stammer and she motioned towards the cameras as it showed Subaru still waving off into the distance. "She probably forgot she was even IN a battle-"

Teana froze mid-sentence, and shot a glance back at the cameras. With her friend like this, it would be all too easy for the other mage to get the upper hand.

Inside the arena, Bathory had dropped off the other side of the building, falling headfirst towards the ground. Holding his left gauntlet against the wall, the blade of energy shot out of that and propelled him downwards as gravity also helped in his descent. He continued descending, gathering as much speed as he could before leveling out on his opponent's elevation.

"Aphelion, now it's time" he said. "Razor mode."

Teana shot forward over to the monitors, grabbing the sides of it and screaming at the camera.

"Subaru! The battle, you idiot - the battle!"

Bathory came soaring around the side of the building with his device at the ready. The thin blade on his main device had been replaced by several sharp spikes that shot back at an angle, ready to tear into his opponent. He screamed and launched himself into the air, spinning around to give a bit of extra power into his attack. Subaru heard him at the last second, but couldn't react fast enough. The spikes slammed into Subaru's personal defenses and did a hell of a job against them, launching the younger mage violently off of her road and into the side of a building across the street. She left cracks in the side where she impacted it, and then fell the rest of the way to the ground.

Bathory landed as well, stumbling along the road and trying not to fall over. He finally stood on two solid feet and paused for several seconds, trying to catch his breath. He looked at Subaru, and she was just beginning her struggle to get back up. Looking back down the road, he noticed that he was almost in front of the entrance to the simulation. Exhausted from the fight, he put one foot in front of the other, slowly making progress down the road.

Out by the entrance, the air had been still ever since Subaru fell, and the expressions on the audiences' faces ranged from Signum's unfazed look to Teana's look of fear. She slowly reached to unmute her audio, and called out worriedly.

"Subaru, you okay?"

As Bathory continued along, he stumbled once and fell to his hands and knees. Between breaths, he began to smile and looked up at the audience.

"Who...who said...that I was going to lose?"

Teana gritted her teeth and stared daggers at Bathory as rose to his knees and looked into the sky, staring back up into Midchilda's suns.

"Ohhhhh, that was awful. Really awful. But still. Hey Minasa? Did you get all that?" he asked. He laughed weakly at his own comment. "That's how you fight. And that's how you win. And that's how a Siban does it."

Minasa and Teana both moved to respond, but Signum stepped in front of them and faced the screen as it cut back and forth between the two mages.

"Does a true Siban forget to check if the battle's really over?"

Bathory quit smiling and looked back out at the group.

"What...what do you mean?"

Behind him, Subaru was preparing for one more attack, back on her feet and still very much able to battle.

"Diviiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine..."

She pushed off and her skates propelled her towards her opponent, who only just now realized what Signum meant and was trying to get up. Everything else became a blur in Subaru's vision as she focused only on her target. A blue sphere of energy gathered in front of her, and she reached back to strike with her own punch.

"BUUUUUSTEEEEEEEEER!"

Bathory got to one knee and spun around only to find himself mere inches away from being hit. Time came to a crawl as Subaru's hand moved towards him and seemed to slow down more and more as she drew closer.

And closer.

And closer.

And closer.

And contact.

The explosion rocked her opponent and Bathory went flying backwards, rolling head over heels out of the digitized city, through the entrance to the arena and into the back wall of the walkway, leaving a nice crater in the side. He was alive and awake, but his mind was temporarily gone and everything was a massive blur of sounds and colors. Things began to clear, and finally he was able to make out words and sentences.

"...a little much, don't you think..."

"...no...didn't see what she did before..."

"...sounds like her..."

"...should I perform an evaluation on him? His potential assumed injuries are predicted to be severe."

"No, no, I'll go over and check."

Bathory could clearly make out that the last voice was Teana's, and he saw her walk over to him and kneel down. His vision was still woozy, and the girl danced back and forth across his sight. He groaned.

"Ngh...what happened?"

"Karma, I'd say. Now, how many fingers am I holding up?"

Bathory looked around. "I don't know, but she...ugh...she hit me so hard that you two turned into six."

"Oh, no, Subaru's sisters arrived sometime after the two of you started. It's just them."

Bathory's sight rested on Minasa. "And...and she just turned into four."

"No, no, Cinque really is that sma - wait, four?"

Just then, Teana was interrupted by loud cheering as Subaru wheeled herself outside the facility and into the group of Nakajimas.

"Subaru?" asked Wendi, "what happened?"

The blue-haired girl laughed again.

"Well, Tia kinda ended her thing early, sooooo..."

"I only 'ended my thing early' because YOU couldn't let me do anything" said Teana, heading over to join the circle. As she got closer to Subaru, her angry demeanor dropped and she looked closely at all of the girl's injuries.

"You're not hurt too bad, are you? Do we need to get you to Shamal?"

"Ne, Tia, I'm just sore, that's all. It doesn't- OW! - it doesn't hurt too bad."

"Subaru," said Dieci, "if you are feeling sore, perhaps a nice bath is in order."

"And what is this?" added Nove, inspecting Teana as Teana did Subaru. "You're looking a little dirty yourself."

Teana's eyes shot open and she backed away from the group. "Now wait a second," she said, "wait just a second..."

"I can even run a bubble bath if you want" said Ginga. "You know how much Subaru likes them."

"No- no no no, hold on, hold on!" Panicking, Teana backed away from the group of Nakajimas, who were all slowly advancing on her. "You set this up, didn't you? I don't even know how, but you set this up so-"

Teana bumped into someone behind her and froze as she felt the person's hands massaging her shoulders.

"Oh, Teana," said Signum, "you seem a little - hmm - off today. Perhaps some quality time with Subaru and her family is what you need."

"No...please, Signum, I-"

The flame knight smiled and shoved Teana forwards into the group of wild Nakajimas. They surrounded her like a pack of animals and began to carry her off, ignoring the girl's struggles to get free.

"No!" she screamed. "No! Why, Signum, why?"

"Yaaaaaaaay!" said Subaru. "Now I get to bathe with Tia!"

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Teana cried, her voice fading into the distance. "I HAD PLAAAAAAAAAAANS!"

Every so slowly, Bathory got back to his feet. With his hand on the wall, he was able to support himself and he began to regain control. Minasa offered her hand in support, but it was rejected.

"I'm fine, really. I'm fine."

Signum stood nearby, still watching the Nakajimas carry Teana off.

"A plus, huh?"

Bathory took a deep breath. "You know I'm lying, don't you?"

"Well, if I didn't before..."

The defeated mage pounded his fist on the wall and grunted. "If I was only at full. If only."

"Careful," said Signum, "you don't want the girl learning how to be a bad sport."

Bathory looked down at Minasa and her eyes were wide open, filled with curiosity and wonder. The older mage smiled. At least he'd fulfilled something.

"You liked what you saw, didn't you?"

Minasa smiled back. "She had her own Divine Buster! I can make one too, and show it to Nanoha."

Bathory's smile dropped, and with a sigh, he put his hand back on her shoulder. "Whatever," he said, "I'll be here at least another week or two. I'll get you up to a C."

Signum turned around, and Bathory felt her cold eyes settle on him again.

"I still wonder if Instructor Takamachi would best be suited to help her."

"Well, we'll see" replied Bathory. "Again, it was nice meeting you. You're a real inspiration to all Modern Belkans. And, I mean, like, more than 'metaphorically' an inspiration - like, LITERALLY an inspiration. 'Cause, you know, they didn't call it 'Modern Belkan' back in your time - it was, like, the real thing. So, uh, you know what I'm - what I'm getting at - again, big fan."

Bathory ran out of steam again, intimidated by the flame knight's piercing stare, and began to make a quick exit from the facility. Bringing Minasa along, he headed back along the walkway, unsure of what to do next. On one hand, he wanted to get back to his own room, seeing as he was tired and sore and looked a little beaten up and no doubt someone would notice this and ask what he'd been doing and actually now that he thought about it more, he'd rather stay out for a bit longer.

"Minasa," he asked, "what are you going to do next? Keep watching that movie?"

"Oh, right!" the girl shouted. "It was getting to the best part too."

"Well, how about you DON'T watch that, and instead, I'll see if I can get anything from Siba. Especially if I could get the last season of SCDU - I obviously missed the whole thing."

"S...SCDU?"

Bathory stopped in his tracks, right in the middle of the walkway, and slowly looked over at Minasa.

"Siba Capital Defense Unit! How do you NOT know about SCDU? It's only, like, the greatest show ever made! It's got everything - action, drama, awesome battles - real intense - plots pulled from the headlines of today. Everyone watches it."

Minasa stammered. "I...I know it, just...we never watched it in my house. It looked really violent, and my parents said that-"

"Oh, please. It's only as violent as, you know, real life is. If you want to hide under the covers, then sure, watch Midchildian TV. But SCDU is where it's at." He took Minasa by the hand and kept walking, deciding that he had to get her to watch some of it.

"And actually," he continued, "I was on that show once. Well, in the background somewhere. And it was, like, season two. But still. I always thought that was cool."

* * *

It wasn't there. Nothing from Siba was.

Bathory looked up at the list of shows that Minasa could load up, and SCDU wasn't there. There was everything ever that had come out of Midchilda, and a few of the biggest things to come from the other prominent planets, and that was it.

"I...I kind of figured that would happen" said Bathory. "Siba is far, far away, and the two planets have very, very little interest in each other. But honestly, that's for the better. I can't imagine having to play by this planet's rules - nothing would ever get done."

He stood there while Minasa sat on her bed and his thoughts, once again, went to his limiter. He'd entertained the thought of just ripping it right off of himself ever since it was locked onto him, but every attempt he'd done had not been that serious. It felt like he'd only been 'testing' it before - checking to see that it was still there, and stopping as soon as it began to fight back. But he lost the battle earlier, and he didn't even know if that Nakajima girl was trying or not. What if she wasn't? What if he was just that weak now?

It was time for him to try a little harder in making that limiter come off.

He sat down next to Minasa, rested his right leg up in the bed as well, and got both hands around the device.

"Bathory," asked Minasa, "what are you-"

"Shhh. It's none of your concern. Don't say anything."

He braced himself, took a deep breath, and pulled. Like normal, he felt it immediately begin to resist and stay attached, producing a steady pain as a deterrent. Already sore from his fight, it hurt a bit more than usual and his linker core stung from the countermeasures. But he could take it if it meant freedom.

"Come on. Come on and break, you..."

He pulled a little harder, and a sudden jolt of more intense pain rushed through him. His hands reflexively flinched and shot away from the limiter. He gasped and then lost his breath for a second, bracing himself against the bed and letting his right leg drop back to the floor. As the limiter realigned itself and the pain went away, Bathory continued to take deep breaths, his hands trembling. His arms shook, and finally, he slammed his fist down.

"Son of a bitch!"

As soon as he did that, he felt Minasa's eyes on him, and realized she'd probably been watching the entire thing. Once he'd recovered enough, he looked over at the girl and patted her on the shoulder, hoping to ignore what just happened.

"I'm going back to Siba tomorrow for a quick little verification or something. I'll see if I can get some shows transferred to Aphelion or something. Maybe I can show you SCDU. Again, I've missed a whole season, so I'd like to catch up on that."

Groaning, he began to get up, but stopped when his device started to flash.

[MASTER - INCOMING CALL FROM ENFORCER HARLAOWN]

Bathory looked down at his device and ran his fingers through his hair, trying not to look like he'd just lost a battle spectacularly.

"Go ahead, Aphelion."

A screen appeared above the device, showing the blond Enforcer.

"Bathory."

"Oh, Fate, nice to see you again."

Fate smiled and leaned towards the screen. She was out of her uniform and looked like she was back at home. The 'natural sunlight' lit her from the side and she sat on a light brown couch. Behind her was a kitchen, and in the very back of that, Nanoha could be seen working on something.

"The Siban TSAB wishes to push our meeting up to better fit its schedule. Our visit has changed from tomorrow to today."

"Today?" asked Bathory. "I...okay, I'll go get ready."

"Well," Fate said, "you don't need to rush. It will now be held during the mid-afternoon in Siba Capital's time. Which means that we will be leaving Midchilda at around midnight."

Bathory paused, letting that soak in. He'd forgotten how the two planets' time zones were related to each others'. Siba Capital was always about six hours behind Cranagan. As he kept looking at Fate, he began to notice that her smile was hiding a bit of annoyance as well.

The Enforcer finally sighed and looked off camera. "I know," she said, "but sometimes the rules aren't in your favor. If you need to contact me again or have any questions, I'll be at home for the day. Nanoha would like me to eat at least one meal here today."

Behind her, Nanoha walked out of the kitchen and stood behind Fate. Fate leaned back and looked all the way up at Nanoha as the Instructor put her hands on Fate's shoulders. Next to Bathory, Minasa had been quietly watching the call, but as soon as Nanoha had taken her position, the young girl bounded in front of the screen.

"Nanoha!" she cried.

Bathory tried pushing her back out of the way, but Minasa was going to stand firm. Nanoha leaned down so she was visible on the call, and Fate looked forward again.

"Minasa - a pleasure to see you again. You did a great job yesterday."

"Oh thank you thank you THANK YOU! You're amazing, Nanoha! But...ehhhh...Axel Shooter is really hard to dodge..."

Fate looked back up at Nanoha.

"Axel? You went with Axel?"

Nanoha laughed. "This class is a strong one, Fate. I couldn't be as lenient as normal-"

"Lenient?" Fate asked, wrapping her arms around Nanoha's neck and pulling her in. "You cannot talk about being lenient, Nanoha."

The Instructor laughed again. "Well..."

Fate let go of the other woman and looked back at the screen. "It's nice to see you again, Minasa. I'm glad we could get you to Midchilda."

The girl beamed. "Thank you so much. I love it!"

"I need to get back," said Nanoha. "But Minasa - I'll see you later at the next class, right?"

"Okay," replied Minasa. "See you!"

Nanoha smiled again and left to get back to the kitchen. As her presence in the call waned, Bathory was finally able to push Minasa back and return to his conversation.

"Okay, Fate, I'll be there tonight."

"Actually, one more thing" said the Enforcer. "Right before I contacted you, I noticed a spike of activity coming from your limiter. Is there anything I should know about?"

Bathory sat there, confused. "You...you noticed? What do you mean?"

"For your duration in the rehabilitation program, I am able to monitor and receive data from your limiter to make sure it is in working condition and isn't causing any issues. Many times over the past six weeks, there have been small increases in activity, but those have never been anything that could cause any continued amount of discomfort. But this one was bigger than the others - probably enough to be extremely noticeable."

"Fate, I don't really know why you got that," Bathory lied. "Nothing's happened to it. I've just been walking Minasa around, taking her for a bit of extra training."

Minasa looked up at Bathory and was about to contradict him, but Bathory put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed firmly.

"_Don't," _he told her. "_Don't say a word_."

Nervously, Minasa complied. During this, Fate had taken a quick look at the man.

"I need you to be serious about this, Bathory. I want to make absolutely sure that your limiter is not being defective in any way."

"Okay, I got it. If it does something weird-"

"Bathory, listen." Fate leaned back in so she filled the screen. "I know how painful it can become. If something does go wrong, and if the limiter thinks it's in maximum danger, it will respond. And it will be more painful than you can imagine. I do not want you with a defective limiter."

The words hung heavily over both of them, and Bathory took a while deciding what to say.

"O...okay," he said slowly, "I got it caught on something, and it got pulled on a little. Yes, it - it shocked me a bit, but I was fine a couple seconds later."

Fate looked away and nodded softly.

"It might seem like a burden, but it's in your best interest to keep it maintained."

"Fate, I just said that it got-"

"I take this very seriously, but I am on your side. I believe you. I want you to have a pleasant, painless visit on Midchilda."

"And I have been, okay? I'll...I'll see you tonight. We'll go to Siba, and I'll see how things are looking."

Fate looked back at the camera. "See you tonight. I'm sure thinks will be fine."

Bathory ended the transmission and slowly leaned back so he was lying on the bed. He wanted to be naive and believe that everything on Siba would be fine - that they'd welcome him with a parade of open arms and smiles. But, again, he left the planet as an unrepentant murderer, and it was the Midchildian TSAB who found reason in his actions and cleared him. Siba would have to agree with Midchilda here, and Bathory knew his own planet's track record with that. But still, maybe they could put that aside and let a Double-A rank mage who was ready to fight for them rejoin their forces without harboring bad will.

He looked over at Minasa. Since the call ended, Minasa has turned back to the TV, activating it again. Groaning, Bathory got up from the bed.

"We can do this again, same time tomorrow, if you want."

Minasa looked up at him.

"G...good luck tonight."

Bathory smiled, and the overwhelming pressure of that night was reduced by a little bit. Slowly, he turned around and headed for the door. As he left, Minasa began to play the Nanoha movie again, right from where it had stopped before.

* * *

He took on a shade of green long ago. And many a fool  
along the way have been lost to this. I know you can't  
afford to be wrong. And we can't either. We want it  
back. I can't afford to lose you. But that's not what  
this is about. If love ever had a second name it's  
attachment. And if you had an ounce of common sense  
you would be witness to this.

Coalesce - On Being A Bastard

* * *

**A/N: **So after this, updates might drop a bit. I just really wanted to get it rolling this first week.

Just a small warning, this whole thing might end up being shorter than my previous story. That one had, like, flashbacks, and like 3 plots at once, and other stuff, while this is a bit more straightforward. Though, RtS was really REALLY set in stone though by the time I started it. This one has a lot of things I could still come up with for it, and some later parts are still in question. I try to respond to all reviews, so if you have anything to ask or are interested in something specific (or, hell, came up with something that could be interesting), either send a review or PM me directly. Mind you, I'm kind of bad with spoilering my own story.

Also, while writing the battle, I was, like, really worried I was screwing things up - like, much more than during any of Fate's battles in RtS. I just don't think I have as much of a hand on the StrikerS kids, especially Erio & Caro (which I want to use because they get underrepresented but then I feel like I have to wing it a bit more, etc). This battle was a bit short compared to the RtS battles, but I didn't want to use up all my "Subaru battle" ideas already. There may just be more time for that...


	4. The Last Parade

**A/N: **I made mention of this in the author's notes for chapter 1 and then took it out because I was rambling, but another thing I want to focus on in this story is the concept of brainwashing. Admittedly, I don't read or watch that many things, but whenever I see brainwashing done, it's always just to bring a good guy to the bad guy's side so another good guy has to fight the old good guy and save him/her. My choice of series to write this around may or may not have been an inspiration in this regard. I want to try to write what could happen if things weren't that easily reversed, or if the victim wasn't just used to give the evil team another fighter. And, of course, if there are cases where the methods or effect is a lot more subtle than what goes on in those previous situations. I set something up in RtS that involved this, but obviously I'll be able to 'deliver' on it a little more here. I've gotten a few comments from people who found this story exactly the type of thing they were looking for, so hopefully this will be interesting in that regard as well. If it is, or if you just have anything to say, go ahead. Again, I try to respond to reviews and PMs.

Also, this is where the rest of the Siban main characters come in, and this is where you should really have read Raze The Stray as well (though, looking back, it is fairly clunky in parts). Again, if you need me to, I can summarize everything in a PM. And now both stories have a chapter with the initials TLP. Title references are just fun to me, and of course the chapters that are [plural noun here], where, like, everyone in those chapters can be called that thing to some degree. Fun exercise: go back to one of those and find them all!

* * *

Twelve hours later, as the old day ended and the new day began, Bathory arrived in the waiting room for the teleportation chambers. The last hour or two had been rough, but he was as ready as he'd ever be to go back to Siba, even if it was only temporarily. He walked across the empty room to the other side, where a lone Enforcer was sitting and editing some documents on her device. As soon as she finished one, she'd swipe her hand across the transparent yellow screen. The old document would move out of the way, and another one would move in front of her. As Bathory got closer, she heard his footsteps and looked up.

"Hello again, Bathory."

She quickly closed out of her documents and the yellow screen dissipated from in front of her. Fate stood up, and the two mages stood there next to the far row of seats.

"Are you ready?"

"I...I'm a little nervous, but yeah."

Fate began to move over to the chambers, and Bathory followed next to her.

"The Siban TSAB is ready at any time for us to transfer over" she said. "They sent me a message shorty before you arrived."

Bathory closed his eyes and looked down. "Have you talked to the General at all? What is he saying now? I haven't heard anything from him since my trial."

Fate sighed. "Aside from all the threats he made after we rejected him from pulling you back to Siba, he hasn't said much to me either. I've been talking to his aides the entire time, and I'm sure this will go the same way."

As she talked, she noticed that Bathory was slowing down more and more and lagging further behind. Fate slowed down as well, and when Bathory caught up, he leaned against the wall and stood in place.

"I...we never even interacted with him very much. There were many others just like me. And we weren't even the only Breach Team - I mean, if you're AA, you're basically guaranteed to get on one. Sure, sometimes he'd speak about us, but that would be in the middle of a speech directed to a bunch of teams."

He slowly got moving again. "I...I just sometimes wonder 'why'? I mean I know why - the reason, according to law, that he came after me so hard, but it's not like I could personally disappoint him."

The door in front of them opened up automatically and the two entered the chamber. On the left and right were control panels for the three teleportation pods that lined the back wall. Manning one of the control panels was a worker who seemed to be on his third or fourth cup of coffee. Contrasted to how busy this section of the building was when Fate first traveled to Siba, it had transformed into a ghost town by the time midnight had come around.

The two mages walked across the room, heading for the central pod. It looked like a gray tube as they approached, but when they got close, the front rose up to show a white interior. Fate and Bathory stepped into the pod, and the operator looked down at the console, confirming the order.

"Alright," he said, "Enforcer Harlaown and verified guest are to be sent to Administrated World 84, Planet Siba, into the Siba Capital TSAB transport station. Enforcer, please confirm."

Fate nodded. "Confirmed - that is correct."

"Okay, then. Begin the transport process now."

The operator confirmed the process, and the front closed back down again. On the inside of the pod, a timer appeared, starting at five seconds and counting down to one. As it did that, Bathory sighed again and looked to his left at Fate. She continued to look forwards, but she met his gaze and gave a light smile. As the timer neared zero, both mages felt the pod fill with magic as a transportation spell was initiated. They both closed their eyes and felt the spell go off, sending them both into an identical chamber on the other planet. The front opened back up, and both mages could immediately see that night had shifted to daytime. Natural light filled the hallway just outside the receiver room, and Fate wasted little time walking past the operating consoles, now staffed with a regular-sized crew, and out into the hall. The daylight immediately woke her up.

The two mages walked down the hall silently, as Bathory was busy looking out the windows at his home city. He'd only been gone from Siba for a month and a half, but he hadn't been back to Siba Capital since he first left it a year and a half ago. It wasn't as majestic or large as Cranagan was, but it was home, and his mood brightened as soon as he caught his eyes on some of the familiar landmarks. He spun his device up into his hand and held it firmly.

"Aphelion," he said, "look. It's Siba Capital. We're back. I never thought I'd get to see it again." Looking forwards, he'd been trailing behind Fate again, and he bounded to catch up as an idea crossed his mind.

"Fate?" he asked, getting back up next to her.

"What is it?"

"Can I call my dad now? I mean, I'm on Siba. It can't possibly drop now. I'll tell him that I'll be able to come see him. You can, too if you want-"

"Ahh, sorry to interrupt," she said, "but the rules for this visit say that you cannot leave the building. I'm sorry, but it's just one of their stipulations."

Bathory lost his smile. "Oh. I...I wanted to visit him at home because I don't think he'd be able to get here on his own. I kinda wanted to see him. But nothing's stopping me from calling him anyways, right? I can do that?"

Fate smiled again. "Sure. I am more than happy to let you do that."

"Okay. Aphelion, call dad. I'll just tell him that I'll see him in person in a couple more weeks."

[UNDERSTOOD, MASTER - CONTACTING OLD MASTER]

Like before, a green transparent screen appeared in front of the device, and Bathory held his hand up so he could look right into it. As the call connected, the logo of the TSAB spun around slowly on screen. It continued to spin, long after his father should have answered, and then the screen disappeared completely.

[YOUR CALL HAS BEEN CANCELLED - I WAS UNABLE TO MAKE CONTACT WITH OLD MASTER]

"Cancelled? Here? How?" Bathory paused for a second, leaning against the wall and inspecting his device. "Aphelion, are you okay? Are you damaged at all?"

[NEGATIVE - ALL SYSTEMS ARE IN FULL EFFECT - I AM DETECTING THE FAULT MAY BE ON OLD MASTER'S END]

"Fault? Is dad okay? Maybe he can't answer. Maybe something happened to him. He has been living alone now for a while."

[I AM UNABLE TO FIND THE CURRENT STATUS OF OLD MASTER]

Bathory sighed. "Well, damn. So I'll just have to show up when I'm back for real and see."

He continued to follow the Enforcer back through the halls, again looking out the window onto the capital city. His home was off in the distance, away from the metropolitan center of Siba Capital, though Bathory could only really look in the general direction of it. Still, it offered him a bit of consolidation from the rejected call. That solace began to dwindle again, though, as Bathory realized he and Fate were approaching the office of General Parkensine.

"Fate," the Siban asked, "are we going in there? Are we talking to him today?"

"I'd love to - I really would" said Fate, with a slight hint of anger in her voice. "But he doesn't seem to be getting involved in this. Again, one of his aides will take this."

The two rounded a corner, stepping away from the windows and into the middle of the facility. Down another hallway, they entered into a medium-sized hub, with the office of the Siban General facing them down. The door was shut and the windows were covered, and the only sign of life from around it was the General's attendant, who was busy with her own job at a desk in front of the closed-off room. Fate headed straight for the desk, but Bathory took a quick look around the room. Hallways branched off of the hub on the three sides, and opposite the entrance to the General's office, next to the hallway that Bathory had just entered from, was an elevator. He looked back at Fate, and caught up as she got the attendant's attention.

"Hello," said Fate, "Enforcer Harlaown reporting in."

The attendant looked up and smiled enthusiastically.

"Fate! Welcome - sorry, _Enforcer_ _Harlao _- actually, can I call you Fate - anyways, it seems like this meeting is being moved downstairs a few floors. I can have the paperwork transferred to your device once we get down there - Is that okay, Fate?"

The Enforcer chuckled. "That sounds perfect."

The attendant stood up and headed past Fate and Bathory to the elevator. With one last hesitant look at Parkensine's office, Bathory followed behind the two women and the three of them entered the elevator. It closed and began to descend, and the attendant turned to Fate and began to talk again. Bathory wasn't paying much attention to that, as he was starting to process his situation as a whole. It seemed like the average Siban mage wasn't much bothered by the fact that he was back in their building. That, or they hadn't realized it yet. But Bathory was trying to go with the positive option.

The elevator stopped a few floors below where it started, and the three mages stepped out of it and headed off to the meeting room. Now, Bathory was actually starting to see parts of the building he recognized, and he started to feel more positive again. That lasted about up to the time Bathory looked out the windows and saw the front plaza of the TSAB building, and realized that this was where he escaped the building when the TSAB first tried to get him. He spun around, looking at where the attendant was taking them, and was the exact same room where he and his team had first been confronted after the incident.

"Fate," he yelled, running up and holding the Enforcer's arm tightly. "We...uh...can we move the meeting to...to somewhere else?"

The attendant looked back at him. "I'm sorry, but everything is already set up for this."

Fate looked at her guest confused. "What's wrong, Bathory?"

"I...I just have a really bad feeling that this might not be what we think it is."

The attendant looked back at the meeting room and then back at Bathory. She seemed to have an honest look of confusion, but maybe she was playing her part perfectly.

"I don't believe that anything is different than what I have scheduled" she said. "I can check again, if you would like."

"Bathory," said Fate, "I don't see anything that tells me this is a trap. And even if it is..."

With her free arm, she held up her own device so Bathory could see it. "I will not let this turn violent. You are still protected under the TSAB, and I am still in charge of your safety."

Pausing for the last time, Bathory slowly let go of Fate's arm, and the three of them walked over towards the re-purposed debriefing room. The attendant went first, pushing the door open and holding it so the other two could enter. Inside the room were two other people that were both sitting down, and as Bathory stepped inside it and the two both looked up at the entering party, he realized that he wasn't quite done meeting back up with people he wished he'd never have to meet again.

The person closest to the door was a red-haired girl, around the same age as Bathory and Fate, who was dressed in the brown uniform of the ground forces. Her eyes focused on Bathory for a split second before she looked at the Enforcer and her eyes opened wide. She stood up as fast as she could and ran over to the blonde-haired woman.

"FAAAATE!" she cried, wrapping both arms around the Ace in a big hug. In response, Fate put her own arms around the other woman and laughed.

"Negati," said Fate, "a pleasure to see you again."

The red-haired girl continued to hold Fate in a hug that never seemed to end, and Bathory looked back over at the other person in the room. He had a feeling he knew who it would be, though, and had a feeling things were about to get awkward. Sure enough, Bathory looked over to see a man with black hair. He was dressed in the air forces uniform and looked to be a couple years older than the rest of the mages. His eyes had also been staring firmly at Bathory since the other party had entered the room.

Just like with Minasa, Bathory started to remember everything he'd done to the other two in the short time he had interacted with them. Both of them had been in Victamius, and both of them had been subjected to a night of trials that Bathory regretted having to do. While Negati had focused on Fate, the other Siban let Bathory know that he remembered things clearly.

Negati finally ended her hug, and the attendant clasped her hands together.

"Enforcer, these are Lieutenant Negati Winter and Lieutenant Satel Moraine from the city of Victamius TSAB. They both offered to attend this meeting and to monitor Bathory back on Midchilda."

Fate looked at the attendant, confused. "Monitor Bathory? That's my job."

"Well, it was a special request for the ending to his program. We sent out an offer for the position, and these two took it handily-"

"No, no," Fate interrupted, "this is not part of the program. This is not in the documents I received."

"Well, I can verify that this was in the document I sent out."

Fate grimaced. "I'm starting to get the feeling that I agreed to a set of rules that weren't actually presented to me." She motioned back out the door. "Can you bring that up? I'd like to compare."

The attendant looked around as all four other sets of eyes were on her.

"C...certainly, Fate" she said. "I...I don't mean to cause you any trouble." She stepped backwards, out of the room, and Fate followed her. In the doorway, she turned back around.

"I apologize for this. This will only take a bit, I hope."

She closed the door behind her, leaving the three Sibans alone in the room. Negati and Bathory were still standing close to each other while Satel remained in his seat. After the attendant left, his eyes had focused on the opposite wall, and he just continued sitting with his arms crossed and his legs stretched out in front of him.

It was awkward, to say the least. Two Lieutenants and one former fugitive were in the room together, and were just supposed to 'get along'. Bathory felt like Satel was going to stay cold to him for a while, but he had a feeling that Negati might be a little more open. At least, she didn't look like she hated his guts. Still, their previous meetings had never been friendly.

"Soooo..." he finally said, "Negati?" The red-haired woman looked over at him.

"Yeah?"

"Ummmm...yeah."

Thankfully, the Lieutenant was a bit more wordy.

"I'm glad to see you're alright, Bathory. If Fate doesn't think you did anything wrong, then I don't think you did anything wrong. I'm sorry about almost killing you."

Bathory laughed nervously. "And I'm sorry about trying to get you to kill me. I don't think anyone was thinking very clearly that day."

Satel shifted around. "Or now," he added.

Negati looked over at the man. "What do you mean?"

"You're telling me that when you look at him, you don't remember? You look at him and you don't feel the rope wrapping tighter and tighter around your-"

"Satel!" Negati barked, shutting him up.

"I knew we'd get here eventually," said Bathory. "I knew we would, and we...and we should, because if I don't see you two again, um, I'm..."

He took a deep breath, feeling even more like how Minasa must have felt. This time, he was the one that wanted to run away.

"...I'm sorry. For everything I did to you two. I never once stopped and...and looked at things until after."

Satel was looking up at the ceiling, obviously not accepting the apology. Negati, however, nodded her head and replied.

"Well, I'm alive, Satel's alive, you're alive - we don't need to focus on those events if we don't want to."

Bathory nodded his head as well. "Thanks. So...uhh...how have things been going for you two?"

"Same as usual" said Negati. "We've had another outbreak recently of criminals buying up on cybernetic implants and trying to use them."

Satel finally found something to be energetic about. "Okay, I swear," he said, finally standing up, "these cyborgs attack Midchilda, okay? And they almost massacre everyone, apparently. Like, if it weren't Midchilda, it would've fallen. And everyone looks at this. And instead of going 'wow, that is a travesty, maybe we should try to ban the implants so people stop mutilating themselves trying to become superhuman', they all just focus on the last word!"

"Wait," said Bathory, "what? When was this? I didn't think Midchilda looked very ravaged, and I've been there for a while now."

"Well, the TSAB's not going to let its shining beacon of a planet look too hurt, now is it? And this was sometime later last year."

Bathory nodded again. "Oh, yeah. I heard about it once. Didn't really check much of the news - I was a little busy."

"Bathory," asked Negati, "so what does Midchilda look like? I've kind of wanted to see it - that's part of why I chose to do this."

Bathory shrugged. "Well, it's...um...it's nice. Warm and sunny most of the time, at least in Cranagan."

The door opened again, and all three mages looked over at it. Fate was standing in front of it in front of the attendant, and she was starting to form lines under her eyes.

"So," she said, looking at Bathory, "I have apparently signed off on bringing a party from Siba to keep constant watch on you. Under absolutely no circumstances was I informed of this, but I considered my options - which are either to accept this new deal or spend an unknown amount of time with the four of us trapped here as I attempt to get things sorted out - and I have decided to allow it."

Negati almost jumped into the air. "Thank you Fate! I can't wait to go."

Fate smiled a little bit. "This may be an obvious attempt by Siba to increase their own presence in my business, but I don't think the two of you will cause any problems. If you're both sure you want to go, then I'm fine with that. Bathory," she asked, "is it fine with you?"

Bathory looked at Negati first, and it was an easy enough answer. He opened his mouth and glanced at Satel quickly before he spoke. The older mage had crossed his arms again and was looking sternly at Bathory, who paused for a brief moment. Still, there had to be some way they could connect, so Bathory looked back at Fate and gave his answer.

"Yeah, no problem. I'm fine with this."

Fate blinked, and the lines under her eyes became less noticeable.

"Then I shall fill out the rest of the paperwork, and we can be on our way back."

As Bathory looked at her, out of the corner of his eye, far back in the hallway, he saw the one other person he actually wanted to see. A tall mage, also with brown hair, seemed to tower over the rest of the traffic, standing a couple inches higher than even the second tallest person. His mood immediately brightened again, Bathory started to leave the room, trying to run after the other man.

"Bathory," asked Fate, "What are you-"

"It's Arin! I need to go see him!" Bathory yelled, pushing past her and running after his former teammate. This might normally have been a positive meeting, but Fate remembered from her original investigation how the mage acted, and she realized that Bathory might not know of his friend's changes. She went running after him.

"Arin!" Bathory said, calling out to him again and again. He pushed his way through the crowd and closed the distance between him and Arin.

"Arin, I'm back! It's me - Bathory!"

The taller mage finally heard Bathory's voice over the crowd, and he stopped dead in his tracks. He had an absolutely blank expression on his face, but as Bathory's voice got closer, something immediately flowed through him, almost systematically. His blood began to rush, and his hand slowly reached for a light grey gem in his left pocket.

As Bathory got closer, his voice dropped from a shout to a regular volume. "Arin," he said again, laughing, "it's so good to see you again." He opened his arms to hug his former teammate. "I wanted to tell you about this, but Aphelion couldn't find your device, and-"

With an angry shout, Arin spun around. He pulled the grey device out of his pocket and activated it, catching Bathory with his guard down and launching the shorter mage into the air back down the hallway. A few of the other Sibans screamed, and they all scrambled to get out of the way as Arin's device formed itself. A staff shot out to both sides in front of him, and then several thick curved blades of energy formed two glaives, one at each end. As the glaives of energy started to spin, Arin ran after his target.

Bathory landed on his back, absolutely blindsided by this event. He came to a halt, looked up, and saw his former teammate standing over him, raising his device up with both arms to bring it down onto the other mage.

"Arin!" shouted Bathory, panicking and holding his arm out in defense. "No!"

The other mage screamed violently and then went in for a killing blow. Right before he could do so, yellow bands wrapped themselves around his arms, pinning them above his head. Arin struggled, trying to break them, and then stared past Bathory at the person who casted them.

Fate held her arm out in front of her, focusing on keeping the attacker pinned. With her adrenaline rushing, she looked down at Bathory, who was still lying down and looking up at Arin. Aside from the struggling mage, nobody else dared to make a sound, as the normal crowd of Siban mages watched on from either side of the hallway.

Slowly, hesitantly, Bathory got up. He looked up at the other former member of Breach Team 03 the entire time, even as he got to his feet and Arin's eyes were still above his.

"...Arin?" he asked quietly. The other Siban's struggles had lessened in strength, even as the blades on his device spun around, ready to rip Bathory apart.

Fate slowly put her hand down, making sure to keep the bindings around Arin's arms. She moved forwards as everyone else stood still. Even Negati and Satel, who had come out of the room after Fate ran off, stood and watched.

"Bathory," said the Enforcer, "You haven't seen him since your incident, but he's...he's different now."

"I...I can see that," said Bathory. The two Sibans continued to look at each other, one of them with murder in his eyes and the other with pleading confusion. Bathory slowly put his hand on his friend's shoulder, though Arin tried to jerk away from it.

"Arin," continued Bathory, "what happened? Why are you like this?"

"You!" shouted Arin, making Bathory flinch back. "You turned me into this."

"Turned you? I did it? I didn't - Arin, I've been gone for a long time. What did I do?"

"Shut up! You caused this. Every time I see your face, I know it's because of you."

"You're not making any sense, Arin. You're acting just like Kaisa did when she..."

Bathory trailed off as everything began to make sense. The more it fell into place, the less he liked it, but it began to make sense. With a new conviction, he placed his other and on Arin's other shoulder and spoke firmly.

"Arin, you're being told to act like this. Kaisa said they told you to hate me. But think about it, okay? Think about who I am. Remember me? Your teammate? Remember how you used to be?"

Bathory forced a smile, praying for this to work, but Arin continued to stare vengefully at him. As Bathory's pleas continued to fail, he began to cry and scream as well.

"Dammit Arin, break out of it! This is the part where you break out of it. This...this is the part where you...where you come back...where you come back to me."

The shorter mage's head fell forwards, resting above the right breast of his old friend. Bathory's eyes were tightly shut, and he didn't even try to hold back his tears. Slowly, the crowd around them got moving again as the situation was defused. Bathory continued to repeat himself, but his words were spoken quietly - barely audible even to himself.

"Break out of it, Arin, please. This is where you break out of it."

Fate walked up and softly pulled Bathory back. "During my investigation," she said, "I downloaded your team's device logs, and I was able to see what was done to them. I'm sorry, Bathory, but Arin's mind isn't just clouded, if you will..."

Bathory understood. "He's just gone. The old him is just...just gone. Parkensine screwed them all up for even daring to support me..."

The Siban mage began to tremble, his sadness turning into anger. With the image of what Arin had become now fueling him, he pushed away Fate's arm and ran off back to the elevator.

"Bathory, what are you doing?" she asked. The Siban didn't answer, though, and as he ran off, Fate got the feeling that Bathory was about to make a snap-decision. She looked over at Arin, who still had his arms bound above him, but with Bathory gone, his anger had already begun to subside and his device had deactivated. Fate ended her spell and the bindings disappeared, letting Arin's arms drop to his sides. The Enforcer ran after Bathory, and the two Lieutenants followed behind. Though, as Satel passed by Arin and as Arin began walking off to wherever he was headed in the first place, the air forces mage couldn't help but shake his head.

"Negati, I think we're in the middle of a lot more than we realize."

* * *

Bathory pushed his way through back over to the elevator. Stepping inside, he slammed the button with his fist and spun around to face the doors. As they closed, he saw Fate just turning the corner, and the ground mage began to rise before Fate could stop him. Alone in the confined space, he held his device tightly, crushing it in his grip.

"Aphelion, I'm going to kill him. Even if it's the last thing I do."

[MASTER, I BELIEVE THERE IS AN EXPRESSION FOR THIS - THAT AN EYE FOR AN EYE MAKES THE WORLD BLIND]

"He's already blind. And I am not just going to leave and not do anything."

[I DO NOT KNOW IF THIS IS A BATTLE YOU WANT TO FIGHT AT THE MOMENT]

"This isn't a battle, Aphelion. This is just...just what he gets..."

The elevator reached its destination, and the doors opened up back into that central hub. Bathory walked briskly across to Parkensine's office, gritting his teeth and bracing himself for however this would turn out. Without any hesitation, he turned the handle on the door and barged inside.

"Parkensine!"

There was the general, sitting in his seat behind his large desk. He leaned backwards and clasped his hands in front of him.

"Bathory" he said, his own anger already starting to break through. He sighed and quietly muttered to himself. "I guess it _was_ today, wasn't it..."

"Do you understand everything you put me through?" asked Bathory, slamming his hands down on the table and leaning over the General. "You framed me, and got everyone against me, and turned Kaisa and Arin into a couple of lunatics, and you haven't even tried to fix anything. I met Arin a minute ago and he attacked me!"

"Did he?" asked Parkensine. "Well, your Enforcer demanded we at least give him his weapon back, though I can see she doesn't know what is a good idea and what isn't."

Enraged, Bathory clenched his hand around his device, and it transformed itself around his arm. Parkensine looked at it briefly, and then looked back up at the mage.

"Bathory, you don't want to jeopardize your situation even more, do you?" he asked sarcastically. "After all, I do get to make the final verdict about your return."

Through the open door, Fate came running into the office. Her own device was ready to be activated if she had to stop either party.

"Bathory," she shouted, reaching for him. He paused when he heard her voice, and seemed to back off from the General a tiny bit.

"Enforcer," said Parkensine, greeting her with as much disdain as he did for his first guest. He turned his chair to the side and stood up, slowly walking over to her. "You should keep a closer eye on him. Who knows what would have happened if he hadn't been interrupted."

"Nothing that you don't deserve." shouted Bathory.

"Bathory," Fate said again quickly, looking back at him. She didn't sound angry, but she didn't want him doing something stupid. Bathory seemed to back down again, and she turned back to the General. Her contempt for him, though, started to rise to the surface.

"General, I see that none of my recommendations have been put into effect, or even considered."

Parkensine grinned. "Enforcer, I am not going to step down. You are fighting the public opinion of an entire planet. And you are still choosing to ignore the truth."

Fate glared at him. "General, I understand that Captain Shuftan and you were close. I have never once doubted you on that. But you cannot continue to pretend that-"

"Fate," he said, interrupting her. "I understand that you cannot understand my position. I have spent some time considering how to make you and the rest of Midchilda know what I went through. So imagine this. Let's say that you are forced - forced to watch, helplessly - as I kill your fellow ace. As I kill Nanoha Takamachi."

"Sir," said Fate, "that is incredibly disrespectful."

Parkensine continued, using his hands to demonstrate. "As I - I wrap my hands around her tiny neck and I squeeze. As her eyes bulge and beg, and she gasps, and she cries, and reaches out for you - but you can't stop me." He slowly looked up at Fate, grinning the whole time. "You can't stop me. And then, she loses her little fight. Her eyes glaze over, her body goes limp, and she's dead. And you could only watch."

Whatever he'd been trying to do, he'd done a damn good job. Fate had to make herself stay professional as Parkensine walked up right in front of her and glared down at her.

"What would you do?" he asked. "Would you hunt me down, no matter how far away I got? And would you make me pay for what I did? Because Shuftan was one of the best men I knew. We were about as close as you Aces are. And you saw how far I'd go to avenge him"

Through closed teeth, Fate responded. "Your analogy is not correct, sir. Bathory did not kill his Captain out of insanity. He was protecting the lives of his team and of himself. I see you are continuing to believe what you want to believe, but you should at least know that it is incorrect. You may have made a couple apologies while Midchilda's eyes were on you, but it's obvious that you didn't mean them."

By now, Negati and Satel had also reached the General's office, and they stood right outside the door as the scene played out inside. Parkensine sighed and stepped away from Fate.

"Now, what was your original intention in coming to see me?" he asked, walking back behind his desk. He looked across it at Bathory, who still had his device ready to go around his right arm. "Was it to thank me for even considering letting you back on Siba?"

"General," said Fate, "don't act like you have come to this decision. This is what I had to fight hardest to get you to agree to."

Bathory took a deep breath. "I still can't let you just go unchallenged."

Parkensine continued to look across the desk. "Well, if you are to be reinstated, then I will still be your General. I will still command you. And so you should put your weapon away and listen."

Slowly, Bathory deactivated his device and forced himself to calm down.

"Okay. What do you want?"

"Come in a bit closer, Bathory. I'd like to have a private conversation, but I don't think Enforcer Harlaown will let me do that."

Bathory was hesitant in complying, but he complied. He put his hands back on the desk and leaned in. Then, Parkensine violently reach his hand up, grasped Bathory's hair, and yanked him forwards even further, forcing the young man's eyes to look downward. As Bathory gasped, the old General leaned in as well and spoke sternly into his ear.

"Now listen here, Bathory. You will treat me with respect and with the dignity that I command you to. I can be merciful, if you attempt to work with me. I could demote you, or force you to stay at Corporal. Or I can let you continue to advance yourself. Maybe there are some good parts of you, deep down inside. A coward would not have come back. A coward would have stayed on Midchilda. Perhaps your loyalty can sway me. But I am still your General, and I still have absolute control over your situation. Now, if the next words out of your mouth are not 'yes sir, I understand sir', then you have no more hope on Siba. Is that clear?"

Trembling again, but now out of fear, Bathory replied.

"Y...yes sir, I understand sir."

"Good."

Parkensine released his grip and stepped back. Bathory backed away from the desk as well, but his shoulders hunched down and he continued to look away from the General.

"However," said Parkensine, "I cannot ignore your outburst just now. I am putting a temporary freeze on your progress in Midchilda's program."

"What?" asked Fate. "Sir, you can't do that. You can't directly interfere with-"

"_Temporary_," repeated Parkensine. "It may be a day, or it may be two days, or it may be longer. It will be enough time so all parties fully understand the complete circumstances of this reintegration."

"I'm not going to allow that," said Fate. "You don't get to decide the terms of his release."

"Fate," said Bathory, "It's alright. Really. A little more time away won't hurt if it guarantees things."

The Enforcer looked over, stunned, at Bathory. He'd run off, so angry and so ready to act, and then had become submissive so quickly. Like a dog with a hand around its muzzle, or like a child with an abusive mother...

"Exactly," said Parkensine. "A little more time. You can get him through your little program and write off another success, and he can come back to Siba."

Negati pushed her way into the room. "So do Satel and I get to stay on Midchilda during that, as well?"

Parkensine shrugged. "I don't see a problem with that."

Fate shook her head and began to look fairly defeated herself. The General had gotten his way more than she'd have liked him to, but having two extra tagalongs was probably the least offensive bit of bureaucracy she had been subject to in the last few minutes. She looked at Negati and tried to smile.

"I will arrange for the two of you to have temporary residence on Midchilda. You shouldn't have any problems during your stay."

"Thanks again, Fate" Negati yelled, hugging the Enforcer for a third time. Fate's smile turned more genuine.

Parkensine coughed. "Well, Enforcer, I hope you had a pleasant visit to Siba. I'm sure we can all get this resolved in due time."

Fate's smiled immediately ran from her face again, and she pulled out of the hug to face Parkensine one last time.

"Agreed, sir. I will be taking these three to Midchilda now."

She left the room, and the other three followed her. Negati stood next to her in the hall while Satel was right behind them, and Bathory slowly moved along as well. He was still slouched over, and even looking back out the windows at Siba Capital didn't raise his spirits at all. As they approached the teleportation chamber, Fate looked over at Negati.

"I should warn you two that it will be nighttime when we come to Midchilda. Our planet is about six hours ahead of yours."

"Actually," said Satel, "Victamius is on the other side of this planet, remember? It was around two in the morning when we left, and we only teleported here half an hour ago. Not like we ever get to bed at a decent hour, anyways - something something something city never sleeps - isn't that right, Negati?"

Negati yawned. "Yeah, that's right."

"Well, I hope you can get a good rest on Midchilda" said Fate. "I don't have time to show you around, but I could make some recommendations if you'd like."

"Maybe tomorrow we can figure things out," said Satel. "But Parkensine would like it if at least one of us kept an eye on Bathory at all times."

By now, the four had reached the teleportation chambers. Again, the middle pod was open and ready for use. Negati rushed forwards, entering it first. Fate dropped back a little to let Bathory catch up, and then after Satel entered, the remaining two pushed their way into the pod. It was definitely not designed with four adult-sized passengers in mind, and the two Lieutenants were squeezed against the back wall. The front door slid down like before, and the four mages could only wait. After a few seconds, Bathory turned his head a bit and looked back at the other man.

"Satel, huh?"

"Yeah?"

"Alright. I don't know if I got your name before."

"Huh. Guess you didn't." He looked over to his left at the side of the pod. "I guess you couldn't understand what Negati was saying, could you? Not after you guys shoved that rag down her throat and-"

A sharp smack from Negati shut him up, and it was quiet after that as the pod filled with energy again and the four were transported back to Midchilda.

* * *

The pod opened up, and the four wasted no time leaving it and getting some space again. The lone operator was again at the panel, and he waved his refilled cup at the group as they walked by. They entered the waiting room, and the sudden change from day to night was even more jarring than the one from night to day. Overhead, the building's lights shined at a reasonable brightness, but the windows on the side the group was closest to faced the ocean, and it was almost pitch black in that direction. Negati went to go look out the windows, but Satel pulled her along as Fate walked over to a station with another worker behind it.

"Hello," she said. "I need keys for two rooms."

The girl behind the counter reached down and opened a drawer, sifting through it to get two available rooms that were close to another. She got two keys labeled for rooms across the hall from each other and set them on the counter. Then, she turned to a screen on the counter that was facing her and began to type something on it.

"Now, Enforcer, how long will these be used for?"

"I'm sorry to say it, but I don't actually know."

The worker quit typing and looked up at Fate. After a little bit, she nodded and resumed her duty.

"Um, well, make sure to let us know as soon as you do know."

"Granted. Thank you."

Fate took the keys and held her hand out to the other three. Satel quickly reached out and took both of them, looking at the numbers attached to the keys.

The Enforcer looked between the three of them. "One of those is for you two, and one is for Bathory. Since he is now 'temporarily' exempt from his rehabilitation services, I don't believe he should force himself back to Maritime, especially not when it's already this late. Bathory, you can stay here until you continue your program."

Bathory nodded, but he just wanted to get to bed by this point. "Understood, Fate."

"Then, if there are no questions, this is where I must depart - Nanoha doesn't like it very much when I sleep at the office."

"Okay," said Negati. "Thanks...umm...a third time for letting us come to Midchilda."

"Yeah," said Satel, "thanks."

Fate turned and headed off one way, and the three Sibans went another way towards a hallway that led to their rooms. As they got to the right area, the rooms became numbered and Satel led the way, looking for the rooms that the keys were corresponding to.

"Hey, Satel," asked Negati, "what are you going to do?"

"What am I going to do? You're the one that really wanted to come here. What are you going to do?"

"Oh...just...uhh...see everything, I guess."

As Bathory followed, his device suddenly began to glow.

[INCOMING CALL, MY MASTER]

Bathory stopped in the empty hall and held his hand up. Negati and Satel paused as well, looking back at him.

"Who?" asked Bathory. "I don't know if I want to talk to anyone now."

[MASTER, THIS CALL IS FROM DEVICE 'RETRIGAL' - USER 'ARIN VESCERON']

"Arin? He's calling me?"

Bathory looked up at Negati and Satel, who were still waiting for him. Inside, his head was spinning. He'd just seen what Arin had become, and it wasn't anything pretty, but maybe something had happened. Maybe he did have an effect on his former teammate, and it was just a slow one. Maybe Arin was breaking out of whatever he'd become. He looked back down at his device.

"Aphelion, answer."

Negati stepped forward. "Bathory, should we wait for you?"

Bathory looked back up quickly. "No, no - go ahead - I'll catch up."

Satel shrugged, and he and Negati kept walking off to find their room. Now alone, Bathory watched the logo of the TSAB spin across the video screen again as he waited for his friend to show up. Finally, Arin appeared, just has Bathory had seen him. His anger, though, was still apparent.

"Bathory, I hate you."

Bathory's whole body seemed to sink to his feet, and he felt cold. His excited smile faded, and his voice was caught in his throat.

"I...I know, Arin."

He reached with his left hand to end the call, but Arin spoke before he could.

"But I don't know why I hate you."

The smallest glimmer of hope ran through Bathory, and he retracted his left arm.

"Arin, what do you mean?"

"I see you and I get this feeling that you're the reason I'm like this. That you're the reason for everything. But I cannot remember ever interacting with you until now. I cannot remember anything you have done to justify this."

"Here, Arin - what DO you remember?"

"About what?"

"About...about..." Bathory faulted, trying to get a clear picture for both Arin and himself. "What do you remember about Breach Team? You were on that, right?"

"Correct. I was on Breach Team 03 for its entire duration."

"And who was on it? Who was on the team with you?"

"The members of that team were myself, Corporal Kaisa Ellen, and Captain Shuftan. At the Captain's death, we were disbanded."

The more Arin talked, the more his anger went away. He got closer and closer to a default state of absolutely no emotion. It was still absolutely unlike the old Arin Vesceron, but Bathory was starting to get what he needed to understand things.

"So...what happened when Shuftan died? Do you remember?"

"Breach Team 03 was called on for a raid at the Grand Meridian Hotel. We were to confiscate a transfer of live weapons that was being exchanged. During the raid, we found ourselves in an AMF field and were surrounded. They attempted to kill us three, but Kaisa and I survived. Captain Shuftan was not so fortunate and succumbed to his injuries."

Bathory shook his head. He was completely gone from Arin's memory. His position on the team and in Arin's life had been cut out. Not replaced with someone else, but erased entirely. This must have been what Kaisa meant when she said they tried to make her forget. It was as if he was talking to someone entirely different than the person Bathory knew.

"Arin...um...were you always this way?

"No. Kaisa and I were both shot in the head, which destroyed parts of our brains. The General said that our emotion centers were particularly damaged."

"Except for your anger, I see."

"Which is another reason why things do not seem to add up. I only get angry when dealing with things involving you - even though I had not met you until today. Why do you provoke this reaction in me which seems to have no logical reason for happening?"

"Arin, it is a long story. And I don't know if you'll believe it. You probably won't, and you'll probably just get angry again. But none of what you said is what happened. You're not remembering it right."

"Interesting," replied Arin. Still, nothing on his face changed - nothing behind his eyes showed curiosity or confusion, and his voice was the same monotone it had become.

Bathory yawned, and he felt himself growing increasingly tired. "Here - I'll tell you tomorrow" he said. "Sounds good?"

"Perhaps you will be able to help me understand. I shall contact you tomorrow to hear your story."

"Thanks, Arin. I'm...I'm glad I could see you again. Forget about what you did to me on Siba. It wasn't your fault."

Bathory ended the call and headed back towards his new room. If he could have reached the bed, he would have fallen onto it and perhaps drifted off immediately. However, as he reached the rooms that the keys were to, he realized that Satel still had them both. With a sigh, he turned around and knocked on the door of the room that Satel and Negati had taken.

"Satel?" he asked. "Satel, Negati, I need my room key."

Time continued to pass, and nothing happened. Neither of the two came to the door to help him. Eventually, Bathory gave up, turned, and headed away from the rooms. He thought he saw a break room earlier, and it might have a chair or something that was more comfortable than the ground. He retraced his steps, breaking off at one point to go a different way, and sure enough, it led into an open room with a large television screen on one side and a couch in front of it. Dead set on sleeping, Bathory walked over to the couch and practically dove onto it. Putting his head on one armrest and his feet up on the other one, he was soon out like a light.


	5. The Recuitment of Erio Mondial Part 1

**A/N**: Well, I don't know why I though this wouldn't happen, but I again was writing a chapter and then put more into it and more into it and then a half of it would be regular length still and here you go. I might put part two of this chapter up on Tuesday or such and then the next actual chapter up in a week to offset this, though I am really struggling through the back half, so part 2 might just go up next Friday.

Anyways, this is where Teana and Erio start to gain their positions as the third and fourth main characters of the story, and the final Siban characters really step in. Again, disclaimer, I don't have as much to go off for Erio and Caro, but I think I'm using them well enough. Still, Subaru and Teana are a lot more obvious in their reactions and choices, and I wrote chapters 2 and 3 a lot faster than I'm writing this one.

Also, I'd like a bit of feedback to a question I have: Raze The Stray didn't exactly get a ton of reviews, but it got a bit more response to it than this has gotten, despite being waaaaaaay more unconnected to Midchilda or the rest of the Nanoha world. I mean, yeah, there are six Sibans in total that play big-to-kind-of-big parts in this story, but the canon characters are a much bigger part of the character base in this compared to 'basically Fate and no one else' like before. Is there something RtS had that RtD doesn't have? Is a full-OC story easier to read than this? I fully understand that this is probably the most potentially-off-putting story here, but I've gotten some VERY positive responses along with the silence. What do you think? Is there anything that's bugging you? I have a general plot that I'm still advancing, but maybe there's something in the characters or situations that I could increase or decrease. What questions or responses do you have?

Or maybe it's just the holiday season and it's really busy. If you can't do it now, it's okay to respond after the holiday and the new year. This will probably run at least another month or two. Anyways, I'll give you a good two chapters before I start interrupting again.

* * *

Teana finally had reason to wear her new uniform, and so she wore it proudly. Her orange hair contrasted nicely with the black outfit and she walked with pride in her step as she headed over to Enforcer Harlaown's office. Her hair may have been slightly out of order, but it was forgivable, considering that her entire day had been changed when Fate contacted her a short time ago and mentioned that she needed the girl's help. Teana had rushed back home, changed into her own Enforcer uniform, and then rushed straight back to meet with Fate. Something was wrong on Midchilda, and Teana was ready to fix it. As she got to the office, the girl entered though the open door and stood at attention, holding her head up high.

"Junior Enforcer Lanster, reporting" she said. She tried her hardest to stay prim and serious, but her own excitement was too much. A small smile crept through - one that Fate noticed when she looked up from her work.

Fate returned the smile. "Teana, you are looking good today."

The younger mage dropped her pretenses. "I know!" she cried. "Got it a few days ago - couldn't wait to use it. The neck is maybe a bit tight, but that's nothing really."

"Good to hear. Now, I asked you to come because I need some assistance in one of my cases."

Teana darted forwards, stopping right in front of Fate's desk.

"And I'm ready to help. Cross Mirage and I will do everything we can."

Still smiling, Fate looked back down at her desk. Her device was resting on it, projecting a screen that Fate was working on. Around it, several folders of various sizes rested neatly and organized next to several small pictures that were framed and propped up to face the woman. She grabbed one of the thicker folders and held it out towards Teana.

"Currently, I am overseeing a mage in the rehabilitation program and am assisting in his progress and release. Last night, however, his process hit a few unexpected setbacks, and this may take up more time than I can allocate for it. I need you to take my place and monitor him, at least until everything new has been resolved and he can continue in the program."

Teana's smile slowly fell away as Fate talked, and even as Fate finished and looked at her, she stared back with blank eyes.

"S...so you want me to just watch a guy?"

Fate continued to hold the folder out for Teana to take.

"Teana," she said, "an Enforcer's responsibilities do not end once you are out of combat. A battle may take minutes, but the paperwork can take months. This is something you should learn quickly, before your first full assignment."

Teana gulped and slowly took the folder in her own hand.

"I understand, Fate" she said. "I will do this as you expect me to."

"I will also need to transfer some things to Cross Mirage - grant you clearance to monitor certain things like his limiter. There are certain things you will have to make sure are working correctly and without fault."

"Yes, Fate, I understand."

Teana felt herself start to hunch over in disappointment. However, she complied with Fate and handed her own device over to her superior. Fate set it down next to Bardiche, and the two devices began to glow in the same pattern as one transmitted data and one received it. As this happened, Teana opened up the folder to begin her assignment and get a look at her 'target'. When she recognized the mage in front of her, her eyes opened up a little and she fixed her posture.

"Oh, it's that guy."

"Hmm?" Fate asked. She looked back up at Teana.

"This guy showed up to my training yesterday. I think he wanted to battle Signum, but he ended up fighting Subaru instead." The junior Enforcer chuckled and shook her head. "If you ask me, I think he would've done better against Signum."

Fate continued to look up. "He sparred yesterday?"

"Can he? Should he? I can go crack down on him for that. I...I mean, if you would have done that, then I can go do it."

Fate finished transferring everything to Teana's device and handed it back to her. "Use your best judgment, Teana. The top files outline his current situation and what you may want to keep track of most. I'd recommend reading those as soon as you can, and then perhaps you should pay him a visit. Anything he would come to me about will now be on you, and I think he would like to know who he'd be going to. I will continue to monitor him as well in the background, if I have time, and I will take over again when he graduates the program and begins the reintegration process, if not earlier."

Teana closed the folder, put it under her arm, and stood at attention again. "I understand, Enforcer." she said. "I will begin immediately."

"You may not have been expecting this," said Fate, "but you will learn more than you think you will. And there are other things I need to focus on at the moment."

After Fate said that, her eyes slowly went from the girl in front of her down to her desk. Her eyes began to narrow, and it wasn't just from getting only a few hours of sleep.

"Fate?" asked Teana. "What's wrong."

Fate smiled again, even as it was obvious that she was also feeling something other than happiness.

"I registered Erio and Caro for their flight to Supools. They will leave in two weeks."

"Fate..." said Teana, putting the folder back on the Enforcer's desk and leaning in to comfort her superior, "that's still plenty of time. And they won't ever be that far away."

"Everything has just flown on by. And these next weeks are going to fly by just as fast."

"I understand. I should go see them, the next time I can. They really turned into quite the pair, didn't they?"

Fate recovered, sitting up straight and getting back to the work in front of her.

"Speaking of visiting, I need to get Lindy and Chrono together with them at least once more. I can only hope that won't be too difficult."

Teana picked the folder back up from Fate's desk and held it in her hand. The shock from the mundane nature of the assignment was gone, and though she still would have liked the assignment to have some action, she would do her best to treat it with respect now in front of Fate.

"Thank you Fate," she said. "I'll look at all of this as soon as I can."

"Good luck, Teana."

The junior Enforcer turned and left Fate's office. In the hall, she stepped to the side and took another look at the top page of the folder. The man who showed up unannounced yesterday was looking up out of the page at her, and Teana could at least get some practice on the investigative part of her new position.

"Bathory Kardenis, huh? Well, we should probably meet again, shouldn't we?"

* * *

The night had ended and daylight began to fill the halls, but Bathory stayed fast asleep. During the night, his head had slid off of the armrest it had started on, and his legs had curled up to let him sleep sideways, but otherwise he was still taking up an entire couch in one of the TSAB's break rooms. No amount of sound from other mages behind the couch could wake him. In the combination of staying up late and then being emotionally drained from his less-than-stellar return to his home planet, he was solidly asleep and would probably only wake from physical contact. This just so happened to occur, though, as a young girl looked at the sleeping figure, stuck her hand out cautiously, and patted him.

"Umm...umm..."

Bathory stirred as the small hand continued to lightly hit his face. Slowly, he was broken from his slumber and his left eye opened a tiny amount. Though the girl's figure was blurry, he could see that she was just a child, maybe around five or six years old. Bathory's mood turned sour; he was not about to be kicked off the couch by a small child.

"mnnn...go away" he mumbled, rolling over and burying himself in the back cushions. The girl seemed to stop for a few seconds, but then she started up again.

"B...But it's almost time..."

"Time for what?"

"V...Vivio wants to see the cartoon show."

Groaning, Bathory rolled back over, opening his eyes to stare at the girl. She looked fairly normal, but Bathory paused on the little girl's eyes, noticing that both were different colors - one was red while the other one was green. He blinked a few times to make sure he wasn't seeing things, but that persisted, and he got back to the real matter at hand.

"Look, kid," he said, "find somewhere else to watch your cartoons. I need this sleep a lot more than you need those. You haven't dealt with nearly the kind of things I have to deal with, and I'm going to get a bit more of a respite. Come back in...oh, I don't know...four hours."

The little girl's eyes drooped, and she started to whimper. She'd probably start crying at any moment.

"B...but...but Vivio..."

Bathory rolled back over, hoping she would leave. However, he continued to hear her as she started sniffling more and more, and eventually she started to talk again.

"Z...Zaffy," she said pathetically, "Vivio just wants to see the cartoon show."

Past the end of his rope, Bathory finally stuck his right arm high in the air.

"Go away already!" he yelled, turning around only as much as he needed to to try and swat the girl away. His arm flailed about until it hit something, and then Bathory concentrated his efforts on that location. He hit it again, but was confused when it felt like his hand brushed against fur. Still looking back at the couch, his hand grabbed the fur and then began exploring as it mapped out whatever he had hit. Grabbing the thing, squeezing it, and pushing against it, Bathory felt the fur go over something that appeared to be hard, before dropping down and narrowing in to a point with what felt like a warm nose at the end of it. Realizing that he may be doing something he shouldn't be doing, and that he should perhaps see what he was holding onto, Bathory slowly looked back around to see himself gripping the muzzle of a blue wolf.

A couple seconds passed as Zafira stared at Bathory. He blinked several times, and then breathed through his nose.

"Release me and leave your position immediately," he said, "and I shall ignore everything that just happened."

Bathory's eyes went wide.

"Zafira, sir, I'm...I'm sorry!"

He released his hand from the guardian beast and stood up quickly, backing away from the wolf.

"Sir, I...I apologize dearly for treating you like that. As a Siban, I should never treat a Wolkenritter the way I just treated you. I only ask that you please forgive me."

As Bathory said that, Vivio jumped up happily onto the couch, using the remote to turn it on and switch it to her channel. She reached over to Zafira and petted him.

"Hehehe, thanks Zaffy!"

Still looking at the Siban, Zafira sighed.

"Just don't do that again."

Still backing up, Bathory nodded over and over.

"Yes sir, thank you sir" he said, turning around and making a quick exit from the room. Before he got too far, he turned around one more time, watching the guardian beast lie down on the floor at Vivio's feet. After that, he made it back to his new room, only realizing again why he didn't spend the night there as he reached for the handle. Sighing, he turned and went across the hall to his new companions' room. Just like last night, he knocked on the door.

"Hey, Satel? Negati? Can I get my key now?"

Again, it seemed like there was no response. Bathory was just about to ask himself what he was going to do now when the door in front of him slid open. Right on the other side of it, Negati stood there looking tired as well, having barely begun to dress herself above her undergarments.

"Oh, hey Bathory" she said, slurring her words as her eyes threatened to close shut again. "Yeah, we forgot to get you your key, didn't we? It's on the dresser. I'll get it. Hold on."

She headed back over to the other side of the room, yawning and stretching high into the air as she did so. Next to her, Satel was sitting on the edge of the bed, putting his own clothes on. Bathory stepped into the room, trying to come up with something to say to the two. Unsuccessful at first, he continued to stand there as Negati got the other key and brought it back over.

"Here you go. Sorry we didn't get you it last night. We were just really tired."

"Yeah, I understand. It wasn't that bad, honestly."

Negati returned to the dresser, continuing to get herself ready. The room was silent for a bit longer, but Bathory finally looked at the two and broke it.

"So, um, welcome to Midchilda. It's...well, it's Midchilda, I know, but still - I guess you'll be here for a bit now, so I can sort of show you around if you want. I haven't actually left the TSAB complex and gone into Cranagan at all, but I don't think there's anything saying I can't. Especially not if I'm really frozen in my program now."

Negati pulled a shirt down over her head, getting her arms into the sleeves. "I want to go into the city" she said. "I've seen pictures, but still...I want to wander through it, and really get lost in everything it has."

Satel smirked. "Okay, then I'll fish you out in a couple of days. By all means, go ahead."

"Hey!" replied Negati. "What are you going to do? Just sit around all day?"

"Well, actually..."

Satel quit doing what he was doing and sat there, deep in thought, on the bed. Not really looking anywhere in particular, he stood up.

"They found the reincarnation of a Sankt Kaiser, and she's living here. I would like to go to the Saint Church and meet her."

"Wait," said Bathory, "what? That's...huge."

Satel laughed softly. "That's why I explained it. After you apparently hadn't heard about the combat cyborg attack, I just figured that you hadn't heard about this."

"Yeah. I...well, I've mentioned before that I was...too busy to keep up with much of anything."

Satel took another deep breath before continuing. "There isn't really anyone alive today who can talk about things before the Unification, and especially not on Siba. But the Kaisers were there before that, before Midchilda sprung up and the TSAB and before any of us were around. They were out there, doing the kinds of things that we've only heard about - passed down from mouth to mouth and ear to ear. I want to go and tell her - tell her how much she has guided us, and also how much planets like Midchilda have fallen away from them. If she came to Siba, would she like it?"

He looked at the door of the room, staring out into the hall. His voice lowered, and it almost started to sound angry. "Well, she'd probably like it a lot more than she would here on Midchilda. I can't imagine how she could feel more out of place."

"Okay, Satel," said Negati, "just be nice while you do so. I don't want you starting trouble here."

Satel rolled his eyes. "And then they'd just continue to think Sibans are terrible people, right? As long as we're the only three here, that's not really going to change."

Bathory raised his hand. "Actually, funny you mention that. There's a girl from Siba that's also here on in the complex. I was helping her out a bit yesterday. I said I'd go see her again, and she didn't really give me an answer, but we can go over there if you'd like."

"Huh. A Siban on Midchilda - and on her own volition. What are the chances?"

Negati finished getting dressed. She had perked up significantly by now, and was ready to take on the day.

"Great. I can go into Cranagan and look around, and you two can go do what you want to do. I could meet you two out in the city, if you wait to go, or I can just see you back here."

Bathory shrugged. "Alright. If we're going over to Minasa, then we should get going soon. I think it was around this time yesterday that I headed out."

He left the room, walking across the hall and unlocking his own room. Sliding the door open and peeking in it, it looked just the same as the previous space, except the furniture layout had been mirrored to fit the room. It was just like his space at Maritime, actually - a bed, a dresser, a desk, a window, and that was pretty much it. Stepping out, he locked the door again and looked back inside the opposing bedroom. Negati and Satel were standing next to each other, and Negati had pulled Satel's head down so she could whisper something to him.

"Satel," she said, "don't hold a grudge against Bathory. It doesn't affect either of us anymore. Do you understand?"

The older mage looked up over Negati's shoulder at the person in question. Sighing, Satel looked back over at the redhead.

"Yes, fellow Lieutenant."

"I have the slightest feeling that you are being sarcastic. Don't make me think that."

She released him and he walked over to Bathory, standing next to him and letting Negati finish up. She got her shoes back on and left the room, walking down the hall as Satel locked the door behind her. She headed for the windows again, and this time she got a good view of Midchilda's massive capital city. Negati paused, even as the two men passed her and kept walking towards the exit. She turned away, caught back up to the other Sibans, and followed them outside until their paths split. Bathory led Satel over to the left, Negati headed to the right, and the two Lieutenants exchanged one more goodbye.

* * *

As the two men reached the building that Minasa was in and entered it, Satel looked at the average crowd of Midchildian mages that was moving all around the two of them. Noticing the same things Bathory noticed when he came in here yesterday, Satel shook his head.

"A Siban here on her own volition..." he repeated. "That takes either guts or idiocy, and I don't know which. Do you know why she's here?"

"Well, the whole lead up is kind of complicated, but she transferred here to be in Instructor Takamachi's class. That should tell you what you need to know."

Reaching the stairs, Satel stopped and planted his hand on the bottom of the rail. "Great," he said. "A Siban in this day and age who is still hypnotized by Nanoha?"

"She's young, Satel. I was trying to sway her back yesterday. Maybe with two of us, it can be a bit more effective."

Bathory started going up the stairs and Satel pushed off the rail, making himself follow.

"I know I'm dragging you along," said Bathory, "but I feel like I need to help her, or at least try to help her. I want her to know that I really am trying to make up for-"

"I get it - I know perfectly," Satel interrupted. "Ten years ago, every city was dealing with girls like this. Let me guess what this 'Minasa' is like. Walks around with one of those fake 'Raising Heart' ripoffs, shouts about truth love and justice, but is actually weak as all hell."

Bathory was surprised. "You...you got her pretty well with that."

The two had reached Minasa's floor, and Satel again followed Bathory as the younger man retraced his steps from yesterday. The two of them were fairly out of place up here, as the third oldest mage in the hallway looked to be younger than the girls at the outdoor facility looked. But, without any trouble, the two found Minasa's room. The door was, once again, wide open, and the Siban men entered to find Minasa sitting on her bed, watching the Nanoha movie for the eighth time.

Satel's head shot up towards the ceiling, and he couldn't help but cry out.

"Oh, for the love of-"

Minasa turned, spotting the two and shifting herself around to face them.

"Bathory" she said, recognizing him. She looked over at the other man, but drew a blank when it came to him. As she kept looking at the man who was still facing the ceiling, Bathory walked over to her television and paused it.

"W...wait!" said Minasa, quickly getting off the bed. "Keep playing it."

"Why?" asked Bathory. "I thought we could go try to use Belkan weapons a little more. I'm sure you'll get better results."

The young girl stood next to Bathory, staring up at him. "I...I was talking to Nanoha about the movie yesterday, and she asked me what my favorite part was, and I...they were all my favorite! I need to watch it before her lesson so I can find a FAVORITE favorite part!"

Bathory looked back over at Satel, who had already realized the deep hole that this girl had fallen into. He had turned and was now leaning against the wall with his head down low and facing the floor. Trying to get things moving, Bathory looked back at the girl.

"Well, Minasa, I'd like you to meet Satel. He's also a Siban, and he's here on Midchilda temporarily as well, and I'm sure he's also very interested in your development."

Minasa turned around and looked up at the black-haired man.

"Um...hi there. I'm Minasa Kimisho. What city are you from?"

Satel slowly turned to meet her gaze, but his heart wasn't into it. He really just wanted to escape this rat's den as soon as possible.

"Victamius."

Minasa smiled. "That's nice. I'm from Minerva myself..."

Turning the television off, Bathory headed over to the other two. "So - we can just repeat what we did yesterday," he said. "Well, up until that battle I had. But everything before that was good."

Minasa balled her hands up into fists, pumping herself up. "I told Nanoha about my fear," she said, "and Nanoha told me that I can overcome that. So I am! I won't have fear anymore!"

Satel turned around, slowly shambling out of the room.

"That's nice for you, really. Really nice."

Bathory crossed his arms and projected his thought so Minasa couldn't hear them.

"_Hey, Satel, do you want to go along with this? Please? I think I can do this. I didn't give up when I found her again, so why are you?"_

Satel turned around as Minasa followed him out into the hall. Concentrating, he stared at Bathory, focusing sternly on him.

"_Don't insult me. Don't you dare insult me. What have I ever done to you that you didn't ask for?_"

The two men continued staring at each other, with a thick tension filling the air between them. It was obvious that Satel had some things he hadn't let go of, but Bathory thought that if they could find a common problem or a common goal, they could ignore that divide. Minasa was oblivious to this, however, and she closed her door and stood between the two without noticing any of the drama between them. She looked up at Bathory again.

"Um, I asked some people in my class about...about if there's anyone in the classes using Belkan...because I knew you might want to know that."

Bathory looked away from Satel and down at the girl.

"Good thinking, Minasa. Well, was there? Anyone I should pick up and add to this little team? Maybe someone that can help you out?"

"Well, there was no one in my class...no one that I know."

"Yeah, a mage wouldn't be in Nanoha's class if they were Belkan, would they?"

"But," Minasa continued, "there was a boy that everyone had heard of. His name was...uhh...Erio, I think."

"Erio, hmm? What about him?"

"Well, the others just said he was really cool. And he had a lance that was... that was..."

The young girl stuck her arms out as wide and still tried stretching even further. As her eyes shut and she began to tremble, Bathory laughed and patted her head.

"I see, Minasa. Well, then, if it's worth looking into, then we could go find this kid."

Bathory held his right hand up and spoke to his device.

"Aphelion, find me...uhh...find me 'Erio'."

[MASTER, IS THAT WITH AN A OR AN E]

"Oh, figure it out yourself. It's not like anyone ever has the same name as anyone else."

As Aphelion scanned through the Midchildian members of the TSAB, Bathory and Satel watched the device as it glowed in patterns across its standby form. A few seconds later, a screen appeared with the one possible result.

[SEARCH COMPLETED, MY MASTER - ONE ENTRY FOUND]

All three Sibans looked at the profile that Bathory's device had found. As usual, the top left corner showed a picture of the boy. Red hair fell down around his face in little clumps, and his blue eyes were looking right at the screen. Bathory only really looked at Erio's picture and then skimmed through the rest of the text below that showed the boy's rank, spells, and other descriptions. He looked at that quickly and then moved his finger across the screen, dragging the profile to its second page which showed off Erio's weapon, in both standby and active modes, and from a variety of angles. He looked at the pictures, nodding in approval.

"That is quite the device you've got there, Erio Mondial."

Bathory lowered his right hand and Aphelion closed Erio's profile.

"So," asked its master, "does anyone have the faintest idea of where to start?"

"Yeah!" cried Minasa. "They said he's around here in this building sometimes. Probably downstairs...I don't know anything more."

"Downstairs in the mess hall, right?" asked Satel. "That's usually where people show up at least once a day."

Bathory looked at the other two Sibans.

"Well, then we might as well give it a shot."

He led the way, going back down the stairs and stopping at the floor that seemed even louder than the others. It was a little late for breakfast and a little early for lunch, but there weren't many other places to be in the building. It was still a big hunch that they would find this boy there, but it didn't hurt too much to try. With Bathory still leading, the three entered a massive room with tables organized neatly the entire way across and booths lining three of the walls. The fourth wall, which was on the group's right, was used for the food counters and the inevitable line for the food counters. As it was, again, at an awkward time to eat, the room was only half full instead of entirely full, and the three Sibans were able to pause and start to scan for a red-haired boy. Where Bathory was looking, he wasn't finding much, but he felt a sharp tap on the shoulder.

"There," said Satel, pointing across the room with his other arm. "There he is."

Bathory followed Satel's arm to the far corner of the room where a young figure with red hair was sitting in a booth that was facing the group. It didn't seem like anyone was with him - the boy was just sitting there, looking out at the rest of the room as well, as if he was expecting someone.

"Well, well," Satel remarked, "should we go do this?"

Bathroy began walking across the room. "I guess so. That device certainly won't be firing bombardment spells, so I'm pretty sure he'll be doing what I'm looking for. Now, Satel, have you ever done any talent scouting before?"

Satel followed along. "All the time. The Victamius air forces branch was in quite a bit of disarray after all the Nanoha clones gave up and dropped out."

"Which reminds me. Why exactly are you an air mage if you dislike Midchilda this much?"

"The average Siban has no idea how to deal with an air mage. I'm just filling in a hole that the system itself made - or, rather, taking an opportunity. Air vs ground is not in the same fight as Siba vs Midchilda. Not all rectangles are squares, after all. Anyways, for this, you want me to play up the Belkan side of things, right? I'll start and then you can kind of fill in."

They moved across the room, with Minasa following behind them. Erio's table got closer and closer, but the boy himself seemed oblivious to the party that was coming to meet him. He looked on past them, even up to the point where Bathory positioned himself next to Erio and Satel positioned himself by the seat across from him.

"Erio, right?" asked Satel.

The boy looked up at the mage who asked him that, and then also noticed Bathory waiting his turn as well. Erio's eyes went back and forth between the two men.

"Ummmm, have we met before?"

Satel repeated his question. "Are you Erio Mondial?"

The boy settled on the man who was talking to him.

"Yeah. That's me."

Satel shifted a little and adjusted his position. "Good. We come from another planet - Siba - world eighty four. Have you heard of it?"

Erio thought about it for a second or two, but he couldn't remember hearing of it ever.

"No, sorry."

"That's fine. Midchilda isn't well known for advertising planets like ours anyways. We mention this because we come from a planet that specialized heavily in Modern Belkan. Over ninety-five percent of the members in our TSAB use that system, in direct comparison to a planet such as this, where that statistic may be reversed. We are talking to you because we caught wind of you and your abilities, and would like to extend our network to you."

Erio scratched the back of his head with his hand. "Thank you for the compliment, mister...uhh..."

"Oh, forgive me" said Satel. He pointed at the other man that was standing next to the boy. "I'm Satel and he's Bathory".

"Well, thank you mister Satel, but...ehh...I already got four lifetime subscriptions to Belkan Weekly in gifts last year, and..."

"No, that's not what we mean" Satel replied. "What have you done in your time on the bureau? What have they let you apply yourself towards?"

Erio had a quick response to the question, and his eyes lit up as he was saying it.

"I was Guard Wind for Forward Lightning on Riot Force 6!"

Satel nodded. "Okay, okay, and what did you do on that?"

"We were the primary team behind solving the Scaglietti Incident!"

Satel continued to nod, but as Erio stopped and wasn't continuing, Satel tried to press him further.

"And?"

Erio looked at the man, confused.

"What do you mean?"

"Kid, this is Midchilda. The requirements for something to become an incident are practically 'a whole bunch of nothing'." Satel looked over at Bathory. "That guy, Scag-oli-uhh-whatever-his-name probably forgot to pay a parking ticket."

He looked back at Erio. "I mean, when I was your age - or maybe a couple years older - I'd been involved in situation after situation that were real incidents. Siba is the type of planet where our bureau is tested day in and day out by groups and gangs that skirt our laws for their own benefit. You could do more on Siba in a year than you will on Midchilda in the next decade. I'd hate for you to be unhappy when there are planets out in the universe that would take you openly."

Bathory looked over at Satel. "_Wait,_" he said, "_are we trying to recruit him now? I just thought we'd get him to help right now._"

Satel returned the gaze. "_And then this kid gets to sit around the complex, training day in and day out for battles that aren't going to come. No combat mage or knight should ever have to be subject to that_."

As the two adults kept talking to each other, Erio looked down and finally noticed the third Siban. Minasa smiled and introduced herself.

"Hi there! I'm Minasa."

"Erio," the boy stated again. He looked back up at the adults, but they were still staring at each other.

"_But you shouldn't just jump to RECRUITING him! You need to start out slower than that."_

_ "I'm just setting the thought in his mind, that's all. You're exactly right - you start small, and slow, and you slowly win them over."_

"Umm," the boy asked Minasa, "are you with them?"

Minasa shuffled her feet. "He wants to help me train, but I'm not Belkan. I'm in Nanoha's class."

Erio smiled. "Good for you" he said. "You look a lot like young Nanoha yourself."

"Thanks. But...uhh...They want to see someone who is Belkan, so they found you. I'm sorry if we're disturbing you."

"Oh, no. I'm just waiting for Caro to arrive."

Meanwhile, the two adults were still arguing.

"_Alright, but again, imagine if you will a Siban just showing up and trying to take a bunch of kids off planet. Do you think anyone would agree to that?"_

_ "What are you saying? This is Midchilda! Who cares what they think? Siba never gets anyone from other planets to come there. I might as well try."_

From the left, Erio heard a loud cry, and the four were all surprised as a small white dragon flew over to the table.

"Fried!" shouted the boy. He opened his arms and the small dragon flew right into his grasp. Erio hugged the dragon and laughed as it rubbed its head and horn against the boy, continuing to make happy-sounding noises as Erio embraced it. Friedrich continued rubbing up against Erio, and Erio responded by petting the dragon back. The entire time, the three Sibans just stared at what was going on in front of them.

"Ummm, Satel?" asked Bathory.

"Yeah?"

"Does this kid have a pet dragon as well?"

Satel took a deep breath. "That's pretty badass if you ask me."

"I take back everything I said - we have to get this kid to Siba."

A few more seconds passed, and Bathory was just about to reach out and touch the small dragon when the group heard another young girl's voice coming from behind them.

"Friedrich seems happy today, doesn't he?"

Erio released the small dragon, and with another cry, it flew over towards its master. Bathory, Satel and Minasa all followed the dragon with their eyes, and all saw the girl with pink hair at the same time.

"Uhhhh, Bathory" asked Satel.

"Yeah?"

"Pink."

"I see that, Satel. I see that."


	6. The Recuitment of Erio Mondial Part 2

Erio scooted his way out of the booth and walked a couple steps over to the other girl.

"Caro" he said.

Caro was smiling. "Erio, it looks like you've become a popular one. What is this about?"

Erio looked back at the Sibans. "This? Oh, I was just sitting here and they appeared. They were talking about another planet and then about me and then about...I don't really know, actually."

Bathory coughed. "We were looking for someone who practiced Modern Belkan to help this girl in her own training." He put his hand on Minasa's back and pushed her forwards. She stumbled a bit, and looked at the other girl opposite of her.

"Hi!" she said. "I'm Minasa Kimisho."

"Caro Ru Lushe," replied the summoner. She looked back at Bathory. "I'm sorry, but I need to speak to Erio for a bit right now."

Erio looked at his partner. "What is it, Caro?" he asked.

Caro continued to smile and Friedrich flapped his wings, circling around her.

"I believe everything is scheduled now. We will be leaving for Supools in two weeks."

Erio nodded. "Thank you. Does Fate know about that?"

"She's the one who told me. But I don't know who else knows."

Behind Erio, Bathory and Satel were listening in. Both of them looked at each other, confused.

"Supools?" asked Bathory. "Never heard of it."

Erio turned around. "Oh, sorry, forgot to mention that" he said. "Caro and I are leaving to work there soon. You were asking me about what I was doing, so yeah."

Caro's smile grew bigger. "He's coming back to the Wildlife Presevation Area with me."

Erio turned back around. "Yeah. We'll both be officials now, won't we?"

Because Erio had looked away, he couldn't see the massive confusion and disdain that had begun to appear on the two men's faces. Almost immediately, both Bathory and Satel began to bombard each other with their own responses.

"_Wildlife preservation?"_

_ "He means a zoo, right? He's going to work at a zoo?"_

_ "Yeah, no, screw that."_

_ "Really, kid? Really?"_

Caro clasped her hands down by her body. "I'm just wondering what we should do before we go."

"Everything, of course" replied the boy.

The summoner giggled. "But is there anything really special you want to do?"

Erio thought for a moment.

"I really want to go to Park Road again. Maybe twice. Or... or maybe three times."

Caro rocked back and forth on her heels. "Maybe tomorrow, then. Fate will pay for everything, so we can do as much as we want. Now, what's going on here again?"

She looked up at the two men, who had both tried to conceal their expressions from earlier. Erio quickly looked up at Satel as well, and then turned back.

"I..." he stammered, "I still don't really know..."

Bathory stepped forwards, pushing Minasa again until she was practically in the middle of Erio and Caro.

"Erio's got Belkan expertise, apparently, and we need someone around this girl's age to help her out."

Caro laughed. "How very noble of you, Erio."

"Well, I..." said Erio, blushing. "I didn't agree to it yet," he mumbled, "but..."

The summoner looked over at the other girl. "I can provide support for Erio."

"Oh, is he one of types that needs a lot of praise?" asked Satel, joining back in. "I guess I could cheer him on, if it'll help."

Erio looked over at the man and shook his head.

"No, it's...it's not like that..."

"Thanks, I guess, but we'll take him alone" said Bathory. "We'll see if this will help or not. Not a big event. It'll be a couple hours max if you need him back."

"Very well," said Caro. She leaned in to the nervous boy and, in one quick motion, pecked him on the cheek. Now, Erio began to blush, and he looked back up at the summoner.

"Good luck, my little knight" she said, turning to walk off towards wherever she was headed next. Her dragon hovered in front of Erio for a little bit longer, but Caro called for it and Friedrich eventually flew back over to its master. Reinvigorated, Erio looked over at Minasa.

"Ok! I'll see what I can do."

The brown-haired girl seemed a bit hesitant, though.

"Umm...hehe...thanks?"

"Then it's settled" said Bathory. "Hey Minasa, did you work any more with that device I gave you?"

Minasa shook her head. "No. There's another class today, and I kind of wanted to use my own..."

"Well, when do you not have class? Because I can't help you if you do one thing in the morning and go back to something else in the afternoon."

"Umm...I have the weekend free, but Nanoha would like us to get in our own groups and train. I made a couple friends yesterday, so I was thinking-"

Bathory interrupted her by sighing loudly and slowly, drawing it out so all three other people could understand him clearly.

"Then let's do something besides weapons training. Let's...I don't know...go to the gym. Do a little hand to hand. Despite what Nanoha told you about fear earlier, you'll never be able to conquer that if you try to keep yourself at shooting spell range. Erio, if you could point us to the nearest one, please."

The young knight nodded and the group began to walk out of the big room and back into the halls. Though Erio was leading them, they were really only going back the way they came to the building's exit.

"So," Bathory muttered, "you're going off with her instead, huh?"

"What?" asked Erio. "What's wrong with what Caro wants me to do?"

"You mean going off to that other planet?" Satel responded. "Going off to a zoo? That's not fitting at all to someone with combat spells and a combat device. I don't know anyone on the Siban armed forces, for example, who would give up the job they have for that."

"But it's what I want to do. Caro was going back there, and she asked me to come with her. I don't see any problem with it."

Satel looked over at Bathory. "See," he said, "this is what they mean. Midchilda has to be putting something in the water. Something has to be messing with peoples' minds. Look at what everyone knows about Midchilda - pretty much all female, and the men and the boys will bend over backwards to accommodate whatever gets thrown their way. Everyone always talks about Nanoha this, and Nanoha that - Name me one man - one man on this planet that anyone off planet would know."

"Dude - Zafira" said Bathory. "He's a Wolkenritter. The stuff of legend. I actually met him this morning. Got to say hi."

"And how many people across the universe want to do what he does? How many people want to be able to turn into a dog?"

"Oh come on! You ask for an example and then immediately insult the one I gave you?"

"Fine, wolf, whatever. Bathory, give me an answer - was he in his human form or not? Was he actually applying himself like the others or not? "

Bathory looked away. "No, he was a wolf. He made me get off the couch so this little girl could take my spot."

Satel looked over the two kids, staring at Bathory.

"You lost a battle of attrition to a little girl?"

"And a Wolkenritter. Don't forget that."

Satel turned back and laughed. "Now I wonder - how much of the water have _you_ had?"

The other man started to get agitated. He looked over at Satel and his hands started to move around more and more as he spoke.

"I've been at Maritime, Satel! I have literally been surrounded by it. They filter that and give it to us and it's, like, all we have. But I don't feel any different. Don't group me in with everyone else here."

"Excuse me," interrupted Erio, "but I still don't see what you're seeing. I'm really happy now. People have been more than helpful to me since Fate brought me here, and they don't see anything wrong with what I'm doing."

Bathory looked down, intrigued upon hearing the Ace's name. He might have asked the boy about that, but Satel replied quicker than the other man could.

"It just surprises me every time to see the disparities between Midchilda and a planet like ours. That's all."

* * *

The four of them reached the exit and stepped out into the bright suns. Now, Erio really was leading the way as he headed off towards the nearest public facility.

"So you all know about me, apparently," he said, "But what about you guys? Are you here just to try and recruit us?"

"Recruit?" asked Satel. "Haha, no. I'm just here temporarily to watch this asshole."

He motioned towards Bathory, and Erio looked back at the brown-haired man. The boy seemed to already be forming several questions, and none of them were ones that Erio really needed to know or that Bathory really wanted to answer. He was just trying to bring another actual Belkan along for the ride - nothing more than that. And that didn't involve revealing anything about how he got here in the first place. Thankfully, Satel still had a point to make, so he started back up again.

"But if we're making acquaintances with each other, then I should say something about myself. Lieutenant Satel Moraine of the Siban TSAB Air Armaments Service, and leader of the city of Victamius Aerial Suppressive Team."

Minasa looked up at Satel. "You're an air mage too?" she asked.

"Yeah" replied Bathory in place of the other man. "Complains about all things Midchildian, then takes to the skies and uses their systems."

"Hey," Satel shot back, "What did I say earlier? Their magic system is fine. Nobody on the streets of Siba has a damn clue what to do against an air mage."

Bathory rolled his eyes. "And there we go. I haven't seen an air mage yet that hasn't thought they were so much better than the ground forces."

Satel laughed, and with a grin, he began to concentrate on lifting into the air.

"I'm sorry - what was that?"

He bent his knee a little, pressing his left leg against the ground and pushing off. He jumped into the air and then stayed up there, hovering above the ground. Keeping up with the group, he turned horizontally and then flew above Bathory, resting his hand on the ground mage's shoulder.

"What was that?" he asked again. "I couldn't hear you over there."

Bathory rolled his eyes again and tried to swat the air mage's hand away. Satel pulled it back first, however, and then laughed again. He looked forwards and increased his speed, flying out in front of the group before ascending and descending in a giant loop, ending up right back in the position he started in. Bathory looked down at Erio and crossed his arms, shaking his head at Satel's little feat, but Minasa had a different reaction. She jumped to attention and raised her arm into the air.

"I can fly too!" she yelled. "Watch this."

She stopped moving forwards and shut her eyes, concentrating hard on channeling her own magic. As she balled her hands into little fists and began to tremble, the other three quit walking or flying along without her and turned back to watch. The girl's whole body was trembling from how hard she was straining herself and she also bent at the knees, though she crouched down so much further than Satel had to. She held that position for a couple seconds, trying to get the magic moving just right, and then sprung up in one violent movement. She cried out, jumped off the ground, and her upward movement began to slow as gravity took over. However, at the top of her jump, her body stopped moving and hovered there. Though she was still concentrating hard on keeping it up, Minasa slowly opened her eyes and smiled at the group.

"L...look!" she said, pitching over and flying back to the group.

Still hovering in the air as well, Satel twisted around and leaned back so he seemed to be lying down on nothing. He moved his hands up behind his head and rested there, looking all the way up so the girl and the world appeared upside down.

"See?" he asked. "Fun, isn't it?"

Minasa nearly stumbled, and she stuck her arms out in a panic to keep herself righted. Bathory crossed his own arms and shook his head, but Minasa smiled again.

"Nanoha says that every time I fly, I stay up a little bit longer. So even if I struggle, as long as I do my best to...to..."

Minasa began to tip over again, and she fought to keep herself afloat. However, this was one fall that she couldn't pull herself out from, and she cried out again as she fell forwards, rotating around to smack her head into the ground. She laid there with her cheek on the grass, even as her legs and her feet continued to hover above her. Eventually, Bathory walked over to the girl and reached down to help her up. Minasa quit flying, and she righted herself as she took the ground mage's hand and got back to her feet. They walked back to the other two, and Minasa chuckled softly and awkwardly.

"Well, I fell really fast that time...but..."

Satel lowered himself to the ground, looking satisfied. Bathory got him and the girl back into the group and kept walking forwards.

"Erio," he said, "I know we might not have the best explanation for this. But Minasa's still a D, and she needs to become a C, and if there's anything someone her age can tell her that I can't, then go ahead. My C-rank test was, well, when I was your age."

Minasa looked over at the boy.

"I've taken it over and over, but I can't pass it. It's tough...it's the toughest thing I've ever tried to do."

Erio was about to start up with some encouragement, but Satel began to laugh. He patted Minasa's shoulder forcefully, making her flinch under it.

"C? You think that's bad?" he asked. "Ohhhhh, you just wait until your B-rank test. That is even worse. And then your A Minus test. And then your A rank test. I mean, assuming you get up there. But yeah, getting to C-rank is nothing."

Bathory rolled his eyes one more time and looked over at Satel.

"Thanks for that, Lieutenant. Seriously."

Turning away, Bathory looked up at another building that the group was coming up on.

"Erio," he asked, "is this it?"

"Yeah," said the boy. He ran to catch up and stood right behind the two as Bathory got to the doors of the building and entered through them.

* * *

The inside of the building was one giant room, laid out with everything needed for stamina training or hand to hand battles. There were several sectioned off 'rooms' on both sides, separated from the main open area by portable walls and solid barriers of magic. In the large central area, a track ran around the edge of the inside, and in the middle were several more-unofficial battle areas, usually marked by a circle that would be the parameter or the ring of combat. The dressing rooms were all the way to the back, but Bathory quickly picked an open ring to use and began to move the group over to it. Around them, there were a couple groups that were obviously in a class at the moment, but most of the users were here unofficially like the Sibans and Erio were.

Bathory walked Minasa into one of the circles and released his grip. She stayed put while he got to the other side of it and turned around.

"Erio, go stand next to her."

The young knight complied, walking up to Minasa and standing by her side. The young girl looked nervously at Erio and he looked back at her, still fairly confused himself.

"Alright," said Bathory, "now grapple."

The kids looked back at each other, confused again. Neither of them moved to get in position.

"Come on," said Bathory. "No magic, no devices. You know what to do."

Both kids turned back to him, and Minasa took a step forwards.

"...Umm..."

"Have you never done this before?" asked Bathory, stepping into the ring and motioning for the two combatants to turn towards each other. "Minasa, it's really about time you learn this. If not just for fighting criminals, then learn it for yourself. I mean, you get a whole bunch of kids ranking up further and further, all living next to each other and all ready to prove themselves - don't let yourself lose out on too many of those battles. It might not have started yet for you two, but Satel can back me up on this."

Walking around the ring to stand by the other man, Satel nodded.

"Yup. Obviously, no one likes it if you all start blasting the barracks apart. But a little fist fight is self-contained enough."

The two in the circle exchanged glances again, and slowly turned to face each other. Minasa held her arms out hesitantly, and the taller boy slowly took her hands in his. Their palms touched, and their fingers closed down around each other's.

"Minasa?" asked Erio. "Do you want to do this?"

The girl spent a bit of time answering the boy's question. She nodded, but her hands we clammy, and her eyes still looked confused and a bit scared.

"Okay, good start" said Bathory from the sidelines. "Now grapple."

Shutting her eyes again, Minasa dug one foot into the mat below her and pushed into Erio. Erio didn't move. He pushed back only as much as he needed to stay where he was. Minasa was becoming red in the face, straining to shove Erio over, not even thinking of anything tactical or where to go from where she was. Frustrated, Bathory looked up to the ceiling.

"And Erio, you're...you were on that one team. Riot 6, was it? Didn't you get any training like this? Come on."

He looked back down from the ceiling over to Satel, leaning in and lowering his voice.

"I honestly wouldn't be surprised if he didn't."

As Minasa continued pushing against him, Erio finally made his own move. He stepped forwards and pushed the girl's arms out to one side. Pulling his hands away, he reached and put his arms around Minasa, holding her back against his chest. Minasa immediately cried in shock and flailed about, and Erio immediately released her again.

"Sorry!" he said. "Sorry."

"Oh, come on!" shouted Bathory. "What was that? You had her. Now get back to it, and do it for real this time before I make you grapple against me."

Reluctantly, Minasa turned around, but even as she held her arms out, she was pulling away from her opponent. Erio looked at her for a second, and turned to face the two Sibans on the sidelines.

"I don't think you should make her do this."

"Why not?" asked Bathory, putting his head in his hands.

"She shouldn't have to do what she doesn't want to do."

"Okay," said Bathory, walking over to the two in the circle. "Maybe she doesn't want to do this. But Minasa, you're going to have to eventually. It's...it's not something you can just ignore. You won't be able to just float in one spot and shoot your little attacks all about and win."

"Oh, but...but Vita's there," said Minasa, "to keep us moving about in Nanoha's class."

Erio smiled and looked over at the girl. "Vita did a pretty good job keeping us moving. She was pretty scary."

For the first time since she fell down outside, Minasa smiled. She smiled widely, in fact, and laughed.

"Yeah...she yelled at me yesterday - but she yells at everyone, soooo..."

Bathory knelt down in front of Minasa, making sure that her eyes were focused back on his own.

"Look at me. Look. At. Me" he said sternly. "What should I do? How can I get you to be on my side? I'm here to help you, and I got Erio here to help you, and, hell, even Satel might help you..."

As Bathory talked to Minasa and Erio listened in, nobody heard the footsteps of another older girl with her own short red hair as she snuck up on the group. She was on her way back to the changing room, but she had spied Erio from across the room, and made her way over to the group. Her yellow eyes were focused on the boy and she reached down, snatching Erio up in one swift motion.

"ERIO!" she cried, swinging the boy from side to side. "How's my favorite little redheaded knight?"

"Nove," cried Erio in return, laughing as the cyborg held him firm in her arms, "put me down!"

"Already?" Nove asked, a mischievous smirk forming on her face. She twirled around several times and Erio laughed the entire time, even as his head spun afterwards. Slowly, he got a few deep breaths and was pulling himself together, at least up until Nove dug her fingers into his sides and sent the young knight squirming about in another laughing fit.

Bathory watched the whole thing, just waiting until the girl would quit interrupting his process and leave Erio alone again. Realizing that he had to step in, he coughed and took a step towards Nove.

"Excuse me, but I'd like to have Erio back, if you could."

Nove quit tickling Erio and looked up at the man. Bathory could watch as the gears in her head turned, and she seemed to recognize him.

"Oh," she said. "Hope you feel better after yesterday, though that was a dirty trick you pulled."

"Dirty trick?" Bathory asked. He went over everything from yesterday he could remember, trying to find where he had met this girl, but he was coming up short.

"Yeah, against Subaru. But then she beat you handily, so everything's fine there."

At the mention of Bathory's prior opponent, everything clicked for him, and he pointed his finger at the taller redhead.

"Ahhhh, now I remember you. I really should have picked up on that - I mean, you walked me through Maritime my first day. But yeah, I got punched by your sister and then I was standing up and I guess stuff happened between those but I don't remember that. Anyways, can you release Erio? We should get back to what we were doing."

Nove looked at the smaller girl, then up at the older man who was standing behind Bathory. She let go of Erio, who was now red in the face.

"And what's going on here?" Nove asked the boy. "Anything interesting?"

"Do we have to explain this to everyone?" asked Satel, stepping forwards as well. "We're training them. Plain and simple. I really don't see why everyone feels the need to question this."

"Well, excuse me then" said Nove, crossing her arms. "All I did was ask what Erio was up to."

"I'm trying to give lessons on close-quarters fighting" said Bathory. "Especially for the girl. I don't think she ever did battle up close until I...uh...until I met her. So I'm just making sure she learns it."

"And," he continued, holding his hand out to Nove, "I just so happened to realize that perhaps she should see a demonstration - see what she could do if she stuck through it. I'll show her how it's done. And you can be my opponent."

Nove smirked. "Hmm? Me?"

"Yes, yes. It's only fair since you so rudely interrupted the four of us."

Bathory motioned for the two kids to exit the ring. They started to walk out of it, and he turned his attention back to the fiery red girl in front of him. This was all just spur of the moment for him; the frustration of the kids' failures and the lingering thought of last night put him on edge, and really he just wanted to smack the hell out of someone he thought would be a weaker target. This redhead would be perfect for that, or so he thought. He reached over and began to uncoil his device from his right arm, sliding the loops of string holding the device close to him down over his hand until the string was resting in his palm. Bathory walked over to Satel and asked him to hold his device. Satel took it for him, and Bathory walked back to one side of the ring.

"No magic," he said. "Physical only. Let's do a submission match - just tell me when you give up, and I'll stop."

Nove hunched over and got ready, standing so she was ready to act and ready to fight. She continued to smirk at her opponent's taunts. Bathory got in a stance that almost mirrored Nove's, forming in his mind the best plan of attack and the most painful position he could get his opponent in.

"Alright..." said Bathory, waiting to start the fight. "Go!"

He rushed forwards, ready to show off what a real fight looked like, and so did Nove. Bathory planted his left foot firmly into the ground and pushed out to the right, trying to get around behind his opponent. She seemed to reach for him, but he avoided her and got his left arm down around her waist. Then, with that, he used her body to spin around to her back, ready to trap her like Erio had done to Minasa.

And then Nove twisted herself to the left as well, throwing her opponent off and causing him to fall. Bathory's feet left the ground momentarily, he lost his grip on Nove, and he tumbled towards the ground. He landed on his back, but momentum caused him to roll to his front. That's when he felt his opponent grab both of his arms by the wrists and yank his own hands back up towards the opposite shoulders, immobilizing him faster than he could have even begun to stop.

He shut his eyes and cried out at the sudden pain, forcing himself to grit his teeth and stay focused. Behind him, his arms were held in place so that both elbows were bent at a sharp angle and his hands crossed each other back up at the bottom of his shoulder blades. He could feel Nove leaning down into her hold, and though he struggled, he couldn't get free. Her legs were down on both sides of him, preventing him from rolling over.

"Just tell me when you give up," she echoed, "and I'll stop."

Breathing heavily, Bathory opened his eyes. His head was turned to the left, and both Erio and Minasa were facing him from that side of the ring. The image of the two kids urged him to go on. He couldn't lose this quickly and this easily. He was a Siban, after all!

He looked with his eyes all the way up at his opponent. Still breathing heavily from the pain, and still clenching his teeth, he responded.

"I don't go down that easily. You'll have to do a bit better than-"

Nove responded by pulling his hands even closer towards his shoulders, taking the man's arms to their very limit. Bathory cried out again, much louder this time.

"Okay! I give up!" he yelled. "I give I give I GIVE!"

Satisfied, Nove released her opponent, and Bathory's arms dropped back to his sides and stayed there. Nove got up, cheering to herself, and headed over to Erio for a victory high five as her opponent continued to lie silent and motionless on the mat. After Nove did that, she knelt down and faced the younger girl that was standing next to Erio.

"Wow," she said to Minasa, "you DO look like a mini-Nanoha!"

"Thanks," the girl giggled. She closed her eyes and blushed as Nove ran her hand through the girl's hair back and forth and then patted her head as the cyborg got up.

"Well, it was fun" she said, turning back to her still-downed opponent. "But I need to get going." Then, she looked down again at Erio.

"Bye Erio. You can tell me all about this later."

Nove headed off, back to the changing rooms. Erio, Minasa and Satel all watched her go, though the other man quickly turned his attention to Bathory. Shaking his head and smirking as well, he approached the downed mage.

"That's a good look for you - head on the floor. Now, come on, get up."

"Can't" Bathory responded. "Arms hurt too much."

With a loud sigh, Satel knelt down and took Bathory by one of his wrists. The ground mage cried out again as Satel yanked him up, but he got to his knees and then to his feet.

"Okay, okay, thanks" said Bathory. "Can I get my device back?"

Though it still hurt, he held his hand out weakly. Satel was still holding Aphelion by its string, and he laid the device in the waiting hand in front of him. Very, very slowly, and with a ton of extra care, Bathory began to wrap the string back around his right arm.

"Excuse me, Minasa" said Erio, turning to her. "What do we do now?"

"Hold on kid, give me a minute. I'll figure it out" said Bathory.

"I...I..." said Minasa timidly, "I think it's fine. I'm sorry I got scared before."

Bathory took another annoyed breath and looked at the two.

"Actually, you know what, screw it. We didn't get anything done, and we're not getting anything done. Everyone just go back to whatever you were doing before."

"Are you sure?" asked Erio. "Perhaps there is something that will be more enjoyable."

"Nah. Minasa can just...just go on to her class and I'll go back and try to regain feeling in my arms and..."

Bathory turned around, ready to just walk out of the gym, but stopped immediately when an orange haired girl in a black uniform was standing in front of him.

"Bathory, is it?" Teana asked.

Immediately, Bathory relaxed, stuck his hands in his pockets, and acted like nothing was wrong.

"Yeah, that's me. And you were...uhh...Tia, was it?"

"Teana. Call me Teana. I'd appreciate that. Or call me Junior Enforcer Lanster. I'd appreciate that even more." The girl was still holding the thick folder containing Bathory's case file, and she moved it so she was holding it up between her right arm and her body.

"I believe we should make acquaintances with one another. I would have talked to you a minute or two ago, but...ehh...I didn't want Nove seeing me and dragging me off to something else."

"Teana," said Erio. The two kids walked over to the group, and Erio stood by his former teammate. The Junior Enforcer looked down at the boy and smiled.

"Ahh, Erio, what's going on here?"

Satel was all but ready to roll his eyes and answer the question even more sarcastically than all the other times before when Bathory cut him off.

"Circumstances. We're all here together for various reasons and in various ways."

"Well," said Teana, turning back to him, "Fate is temporarily unable to monitor you fully and continue your advancement through the rehabilitation program. As her junior, I have taken your case and you will be reporting to me for the near future. Do you understand that?"

As Teana spoke, Bathory's eyes slowly began to look more and more hollow, and his shoulders started to sag again. Meanwhile, next to him, Satel began to smile more and more, trying to hold back laughter that was building up inside of him. The two adult Sibans both stood there, not making a sound, as Teana looked on.

"Bathory," she asked again sharply, "do you understand?"

"Yeah..." said Bathory. "I get it."

Finally, Satel was able to hold his laughter back. Instead, he just put an arm on Bathory's shoulder and comforted him mockingly.

"Oh, man, that really sucks. Sorry about that."

Teana turned her attention to the air mage. Her brow lowered as she stared at him.

"What? What do you have a problem with?"

Satel shook his head. "I could never report to someone younger than me. I just couldn't. That's all."

Teana backed off somewhat, pulling the folder out and digging through the top pages until she settled on one with a picture of the black-haired Siban on it.

"Fate told me about this - that your planet sent some others over to do her job - well, my job now. Anyways, 'Satel' is it? I will let you know that Bathory Kardenis should still report and respond first and foremost to me, as he is on Midchilda and is a temporary resident of Midchilda."

"They froze my program, if you haven't heard" said Bathory.

Teana nodded. "Fate briefed me on your situation this morning. She said you have acted positively for much of your program and that there is nothing I should worry about, so as long as you stay lawful and responsible, I will not need to hover over you. Fate also said that I can grant you access to the city of Cranagan, as she did not want to force Satel and...uhh..."

Quickly, she flipped back to the page showing the other two Sibans who had come back last night.

"...and Negati to stay in the complex the whole time. All I say is that maybe you try picking less battles against air-headed girls who have trained under Nanoha and also that you don't do hand to hand battles against masters of Strike Arts."

Bathory sighed. "You saw that, didn't you?"

Teana closed the folder back up and returned it to its spot. "Fate will return to your case once your program freeze is over and you advance in it again, or if the case becomes too much for me to handle. But I don't think that will happen, will it?"

"I'm good," said Bathory. "Then we'll just...we'll just go on, won't we? I'm probably headed back to my room, and you can...go off wherever."

"I'm still going out to the city," said Satel. "He'll stay right next to me."

Teana crossed her arms and mumbled to herself.

"I see what Fate was saying now..."

Bathory turned back around to Erio and Minasa.

"Okay then. You two can just run off to wherever. We're done here. Erio, I hope you would be willing to try this again. I'll skip the gym and just go back to weapons training next time. Sorry for the complete cluster f...uhh...cluster bomb."

He turned to leave, and Satel followed him. Watching them go, Minasa stuck her arm out and called after them.

"W...wait!"

She ran over to the two, who slowed to let her catch up. Together, the three Sibans got to the gym doors and left the way they came in. Back in the circle where Bathory had tried fighting, Erio looked up at Teana.

"Hey, Teana, have you heard about Caro and me?"

"You're leaving soon. Fate told me."

"Yeah. I'm just letting people know early."

Teana smiled. "Well, I'm sure Subaru and her family would love to do something with you two. And as long as I'm invited, I'm happy."

* * *

"So," asked Satel, "what was that about?"

"Against Nove?" answered Bathory. "I don't know. That was inhuman. Also, I sparred with one of her sisters yesterday - like, an actual battle - and lost that pretty badly. I guess I don't have the best luck versus the Nakajimas."

"So you're 0 and 3 now."

"0 and 3? I listed two battles."

"Along with whatever happened this morning. With you and the girl."

"And a Wolkenritter! You are seriously ignoring that part of the equation."

The three Sibans were walking back to Bathory and Satel's rooms, but they had reached a crossroads for the third member of the group. Minasa's dorm was on the left, and she was wondering whether she was being released or not.

"Hey Bathory?" she asked, pulling on the ground mage's shirt. Bathory looked up at the building for a little bit, and then looked back down at the girl.

"Hmm?"

"Do I...do I go now?"

"Maybe. Satel, what else do you have planned besides visiting the church?"

Twisting to the side and stretching, Satel shrugged.

"Nothing that she'd find that entertaining."

"Okay then," said Bathory. "Go ahead, Minasa."

From the doors of the dormitory, two other kids were stepping through into the outside. When they saw Minasa, one of them raised her arm into the air and waved it about as she called out to her.

"Minasa!" the other girl shouted. "Over here!"

Minasa turned around excitedly. With an excited gasp, she ran away from the two older Sibans over to her two classmates. The other two stepped forwards, meeting her about a quarter of the way, and then the three of them turned and walked off in another direction, talking excitedly about something or other. Still standing by the dorm, Bathory crossed his arms.

"Well, there you go. We can go see her tomorrow again."

The two men started to walk back to their own temporary living spaces, and Satel resumed their conversation.

"Before we leave for the city, I'd obviously like to get myself looking presentable for the Kaiser. She demands our utmost respect. Maybe I'll wait until Negati is done, as well. She hasn't checked in yet, so I'm sure she's still caught in the ride."

"Okay, well, what are you going to do until then?" asked Bathory. "We could sit and eat, but other than that..."

"I was probably going to watch something. Maybe a quick episode of SCDU."

Bathory smiled, but shook his head.

"That's a great show, but Midchilda doesn't have it. They don't carry anything Siban."

Satel looked over at Bathory and reached down into his pocket, bringing out his device. It wasn't a unique device, and it wasn't intelligent, though it was one of the models supplied only for members of the TSAB armed forces.

"That's why I brought it with me. Everything I'd want to watch is right in here; If I'm going off planet, I'm going prepared."

Bathory's eyes went wide.

"Great!" he yelled. "I wanted to show Minasa some of SCDU - I mentioned it and she had no idea what I was talking about!"

He turned around to get Minasa, but quickly remembered that they had departed ways not thirty seconds earlier. Bathory scouted the area behind him, trying to see if he could find the girl again so he could drag her back. Next to him, Satel's eyebrow raised and he looked back at the ground mage.

"She hasn't seen it?"

Bathory hardly heard the man; instead, he continued trying to find the girl, even beginning to walk back from where they came for several steps before realizing that she was gone. Still ignoring Satel's question, he turned back around energetically.

"Save it. Save it for later. We'll get her back and show her tonight. She has to see it. If SCDU can't show her what she's missing out on, nothing can."

* * *

_I will not meet any of your needs and I will disappoint.  
We will not avert our eyes.  
And to those who say "I only ask the least," I say ask nothing at all.  
Demand they give all of themselves.  
If my heart and tongue must be poisoned to purge my flesh,  
then let it fall off the bone.  
This will fail at the grave.  
We excel at saddling a suffering on all those in reach.  
I can see only young cowards that plot against man and all his stock.  
Against me._

Coalesce - Through Sparrows I Rest

* * *

**A/N: **Happy new year everyone, and sorry for the wait. The last few weeks were pretty hectic. I'll just set a soft limit of two weeks for the longest you should have to wait for a new chapter, and one chapter per week might be too fast now. Also, I am not my characters. Any and all grievances with their insular thinking should be delivered straight towards your nearest review section, which will be read with enjoyment. Anyways, I just hope the characters weren't that out of character, and I hope everything went well. Next up: Satel and Bathory go to the Saint Church, and some of the other Nakajimas continue to stun the Sibans with their own innate abilities.

I might start playing around with the description or such of the story to see if maybe I can get a few more curious people in. I feel like RtS hit a view increase when I changed that around. And joined a few forums to advertise. Hmm... anyways, I probably won't go so far as to rename the story, though.


End file.
